Invasion of Finnish goalies (to NHL)

[pihinalle]

Last night Philadelphia goalie Antero Niittymäki played his first NHL-game and won it. He saved 19/20.

About three years ago Jani Hurme was the only Finnish NHL goalie who got some ice time. I don't know why, but now there are so many Finnish goalies that it's hard to remember all of them.

All the big European hockey countries have at least one really good part in their hockey culture. It varies a lot between Sweden, Finland, Russia, Slovakia and Czech.

Czechs have great players for every position. They are like a team of artists. Russia has so skilly individuals that it's almost impossible to find better ones. Slovaks have dangerous core of forwards. Same goes to Sweden.

Finland nowadays has more goalies than ever. I would say that Finland has gone past all the other European countries in this area. Czechs have been known for their excellent goalkeepers, but I haven't heard any new names rising from their country.

Huge progress in our hockey, but we are still missing something. Maybe Finnish coaches have focused too much on goalies, because there should be much more future forwards coming and I don't see many. Defensemen's situation is a bit better.


Finnish goalkeepers playing in North America:

Antero Niittymäki (Philadelphia)
Ari Ahonen (New Jersey)
Hannu Toivonen (Boston)
Mika Noronen (Buffalo)
Pasi Nurminen (Atlanta)
Jani Hurme (Atlanta)
Kari Lehtonen (Atlanta)
Jussi Markkanen (NY Rangers)
Vesa Toskala (San Jose)
Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary)

Finnish goalkeepers playing in Sweden:

Fredrik Norrena
Juuso Riksman
Markus Korhonen
Jarmo Myllys
Kimmo Kapanen
Sinuhe Wallinheimo

[DanCan]

Very interesting and informative post, Pihinalle. Finnish hockey must have done something special in its development of goaltenders. Kari Lethonen was a top draft last year, and Fredrik Norrena is the dominating goalkeeper in the Swedish elite series.

[marrella]

Goodness ... I didn't realize there were so many! Pretty cool, eh?!!