Fantasy - Riding Reimer: Is the Maple Leafs goalie worth owning?
At the beginning of the season, the thought of counting on a Toronto Maple Leafs goalie in fantasy hockey seemed like a lost cause.
Despite adding Mike Babcock as head coach, the club appeared to be in full rebuild mode this year. Several question marks on defense, along with the subtraction of Phil Kessel up front, led to projections of few wins with high goals-against averages and low save percentages for both Jonathan Bernier, and James Reimer.
But after the former struggled out of the gate and eventually fell to injury, the latter snagged the starter's job and has skated off with it.
As a result, one can't help but wonder whether Reimer, who's owned in only 48 percent of Yahoo fantasy leagues, is worth picking up in all formats.
First, the recent results.
After four poor October starts, Reimer has been lights out in November:
| Opponent | Result | Goals Against | Saves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | W (4-1) | 1 | 43 |
| Jets | L (4-2) | 3 | 30 |
| Red Wings | L (2-1 OT) | 2 | 22 |
| Capitals | L (3-2 SO) | 2 | 29 |
| Stars | W (3-2) | 2 | 36 |
| Predators | W (2-1 SO) | 1 | 21 |
| Canucks | W (4-2) | 2 | 43 |
| Avalanche | W (5-1) | 1 | 34 |
| Hurricanes | W (2-1 SO) | 1 | 33 |
Over the course of the past 14 days, Reimer is the top-ranked goalie in Yahoo's leagues, and sits fourth among all eligible players. For the season, his goalie rank drops to 14th, while overall he ranks 66th. Not bad for a player who's original ranking was way down at 301.
For his career, however, Reimer's 81 wins, 66 losses, and .914 save percentage in 188 appearances don't exactly scream sustainability, which brings us back to the original question: Should Reimer be picked up if he's available in fantasy hockey?
Sure. Maybe. Sort of.
It's important to play both the short and long games in fantasy hockey, meaning Reimer's well worth a look in the present. His most recent stretch of games marks one of the best runs of his career, and it's vaulted him to second in even strength percentage among goalies with at least 500 minutes played, and sixth overall in all situations (per War On Ice).
James Reimer has given up just 7 goals in his last 5 games. It's his 2nd best ever string of five starts. pic.twitter.com/gmB9aFsDjo
— David Alter (@dalter) November 21, 2015
But - and here's where the major caveat comes in - if you're scooping Reimer up to fill a No. 1 hole with a view to him carrying your fantasy team to a championship, you'll likely find yourself in some trouble down the road.
His track record, and the fact the Maple Leafs are sticking to the plan of slowly building a winner despite being three points out of a playoff spot, strongly suggests his numbers will tail off at some point sooner or later.
For the time being, and while the hot streak lasts, Reimer is very much worth a pickup. But make sure there's a backup plan in place, and don't be afraid to cut bait at the first sign of trouble.