Going to play's Devils-anti-advocate? Or whatever the hell this is.

Varly gets my vote. He's the only starter of this bunch so the choice is easy as hell for me. He'll get more starts than the other two combined so thus you'll have more opportunities to make use of him than you will of the others. Plus as your third goalie you can spot start him as you please, only putting him in on good matchups to hopefully capitalize on his good starts and avoid his bad ones.

Varly would be my second choice.

The with Varly for me is that I just don't feel comfortable that he won't blow up my ratios, REGARDLESS of who he's playing. He's one of those guys who frequently has <900 SV% games and the COL defense lets in way too many goals. I think of him as an upgraded Montoya. I don't like the idea of my third string goalie potentially undoing all the hard work on GAA/Save % that my top 2 goalies have established while accumulating wins.

Those type of games happen to anyone admittedly, but with Schneider I think the risk is significantly diminished.

__________________
2013 Bay Street CBS Playoff Cash Pool - $100 buyin
12 Teams, Points Only (G/A = 1, DG = 2, W = 2, SO = 1)

The Motherpuckers (5 NYR, 2 PIT, 3 VAN)
Forwards: Neal / Iginla / Nash / Richards / Stepan / Roy / Higgins
Defense: Del Zotto / Garrison
Goalies: Lundqvist

Meh, doesn't worry me at all. If your #1 and #2 are having a good week you can just leave him on the bench unless you desperately need an extra win or something. Meanwhile, if you're struggling in goalie cats for the week you can toss him in without fear of him ruining the already sub-average stats your other two have put up. Maybe he puts up a big game and gets you back in the running for the week again or worst case scenario he gets you a shot at an extra win.

Thing is with a number 3 you can use him as a spot start for SV%/GAA or you can run him to pick up extra W's. If you match him up properly he's just as good an option in SV% and GAA as the other and the number of starts he gets makes him a fair better chance at picking up a couple wins if you need it.

What you're suggesting works well in theory, but I think a lot of the times the goalie category situation in a H2H isn't so cut and dry.

For me at least, often I find I'm in a situation where I've got a small lead in save % and GAA, and I'm neck and neck with the guy in wins. That's where the rubber hits the road... Do I go for the win and risk losing the other cats or Do I do nothing, and pray to god his goalies don't have good games?

It's in this situation where a guy like Varlamov may or may not get you a win, but also has a good chance of blowing up your GAA and save % in the process. I think this is situation is pretty common given how often it comes up on these forums. In situations like these, I can start Schneider with confidence.

__________________
2013 Bay Street CBS Playoff Cash Pool - $100 buyin
12 Teams, Points Only (G/A = 1, DG = 2, W = 2, SO = 1)

The Motherpuckers (5 NYR, 2 PIT, 3 VAN)
Forwards: Neal / Iginla / Nash / Richards / Stepan / Roy / Higgins
Defense: Del Zotto / Garrison
Goalies: Lundqvist

In such a situation Schneider may not even get a start. If you're 3/4 through the week or even 2/3 or whatever and that situation arises the Canucks may only have a game or two and Schneider may not even start one, therefore you don't even have the option.

Meanwhile, Varly is pretty much guaranteed 3 starts most weeks.

You're right, Schneider is certainly not guaranteed the start, but if he doesn't get that particular start, then that likely means I've already had the benefit of one of Schneider's starts earlier in the week already (if we're assuming he starts 1/3, although if AV sticks to his word it's a little more than that).

Varly's got an 89.6% save percentage and a GAA of 3.14 this season. Those figures make me very uncomfortable starting him with potentially 2 goalie categories on the line... regardless of who he's facing... which kind of nullifies the advantage of "spot starting". The benefit of having a goalie who starts many games is somewhat diminished if you have little confidence starting him in the sticky situations that really count like the one I outlined above.

No doubt there's a trade-off here in terms of quality vs quantity of starts as I alluded to earlier in the thread... can't have the best of both worlds.

I'd personally pick Schneider because a) he will start a reasonable amount of games; b) he will win most of the games he starts and c) he's the safest play in terms of preserving your GAA and save %.

__________________
2013 Bay Street CBS Playoff Cash Pool - $100 buyin
12 Teams, Points Only (G/A = 1, DG = 2, W = 2, SO = 1)

The Motherpuckers (5 NYR, 2 PIT, 3 VAN)
Forwards: Neal / Iginla / Nash / Richards / Stepan / Roy / Higgins
Defense: Del Zotto / Garrison
Goalies: Lundqvist