The elite goaltending fraternity added a new member to their waiting list last season. While Jonathan Quick was justifying his initiation in to the exclusive club of backstops, Sergei Bobrovsky the young Russian upstart was making a name for himself in the city of Columbus.

By capturing the Vezina Trophy as the top goaltender of 2013, Bobrovsky was taking the first huge step in what could be an amazing story. Cast off from the cauldron for goaltending in Philadelphia, the young Russian almost single-handedly led the Blue Jackets to the promised land of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Sipping some Swedish herbal tea on Broadway is the unofficial “King” of the net minders, Henrik Lundqvist. The backbone of the New York Rangers is widely regarded as the top keeper in the world. He has been at the top or near it since he entered the league seven years ago. The 30-year old from Are, Sweden won the top goalie title in 2012, but has been a nominee for the award three times and is the only goaltender in history to have won 30 games in his first seven seasons in the NHL.

So when you are faced with the difficult choice of selecting the first goaltender of your 2013 fantasy hockey draft, which direction do you go? The proven, elite veteran with plenty left in the tank? Or do you take a chance on the brash young Russian that is entering the prime of a potential Hall of Fame career? Bear in mind, the word “potential” has cost plenty of general managers and coaches their jobs. Fortunately, Yahoo, ESPN and eDraft won’t fire you for taking a flier on potential.

Lundqvist enters his eighth season at the top of his game. The Rangers were one of the biggest disappointments of the 2013 season. Despite Lundqvist performing nightly miracles, the Rangers couldn’t score and underwhelmed their Madison Square Garden faithful on a nightly basis. Their goalkeeping hero ran out of gas in the end, and Stanley Cup finalist Boston bounced the Rangers out of the playoffs.

In the Western Conference, Columbus was trying to make the best of their final year as a geographic exile. While playing most of their road games in a different time zone the Jackets were rebuilding their team after shipping their best player, Rick Nash to New York. At the heart of the Columbus rebuilding project was their retread goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. The cast off from the Philadelphia Flyers was nothing but an afterthought as the season began, but would carry them to the cusp of the playoffs as it ended.

Bobrovsky and Lundqvist found themselves head to head on the Vezina ballot along with Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks. Though Columbus fell short of the postseason, Bobrovsky’s effort over the final month and a half was nothing short of spectacular. Scoring was at a premium in Columbus, and the young Russian had to be electric every night to keep the Jackets in the playoff picture. As the deserving recipient of the 2013 trophy, the question remains if Bobrovsky is a one-hit-wonder or if he can duplicate the success of last season.

At this point in both of their careers the safe pick is to go with the proven commodity Lundqvist. There is little risk with a goaltender that could very well end up being the best who ever played the game. There is still value in taking Bobrovsky, but playing on a Columbus team that is in a difficult division could result in a much more trying season for the 2013 king of the goaltenders.