Confirmed with Link: Blackhawks sign G Antti Raanta

[ColdSteel2]

You should just trust Q's decisions from now on.

You said the same thing when he picked Emery over Salak, this year, one had a 17-1 record in the NHL, the other wasn't even in North America anymore.

Emery was great this year. But at this point, it's time to start planning for the future. Crawford has played so well that he might price himself out and we need someone ready. I don't want another Turco. You want a 38 year old Vokoun? Because that's what would probably happen if we lost Crawford and had nobody behind him and minimal cap space.

 

[Jussi]

Blackhawks with a Finnish goalie named Antti =

 

[Juzmo]

A little story of the guy for those who don't know anything about him and are interested:

Everybody knew Antti Raanta was a talented individual, but with just talent he wasn't going to get the starting job in Lukko from Rauma since they would rather go with a experienced goalie that was solid and could play most of the season as the starter.

So their local rival, Ässät from Pori, decided to take a chance with the 21 yo goaltender. Even for a goaltender, Raanta was in poor physical shape and needed the quality physical training/activities Ässät could provide for him. Not to mention that the coaching for goaltenders had also been proved to be very good in the near past, with Jussi Rynnäs and Eero Kilpeläinen taking big steps forward during their time in the organization.

This all obviously also helped with the mental part of his game and mentally the final small, yet big, step was taken when in early 2013 he was the winning goalie against his former team Lukko in February. Before that game Raanta had always been good against every other team except the one he had played for in his youth, always giving up multiple goals on the first five or so shots of the game.

That particular game was played during the stretch that included 14 (of the team's 15 last) regular season games, of which he won 13 and lost one in OT. After that in the playoffs the team won 12 games out of 16 and ended up winning the championship after 35 years. Also ended up winning pretty much every possible individual award a goalie can in one year in the league and after the SM-liiga season had a solid showing in the World Championships.


As a goaltender he is calm, good with the stick, overall a solid goalie all around and had no clear technical weaknesses in the SM-liiga level. Very competitive, a bit of a showman, but also mature and has always stayed classy.

Will hope that he will get his fair share of games in the NHL next season and does well in them, but anything can happen so I won't predict anything.

 

[RedBaronIndian]

I don't think this move tells us anything about their plans for the backup goalie position for the offseason. I think this was just a matter of Chicago improving the talent pool and addressing a weak area.

Raanta will most certainly will be the backup barring extremely unpredictable circumstances. Raanta was the MVP in FEL having lead his team to a cup and was highly sought after by several NHL teams(EDM, MIN, CLB, WIN) and also had KHL offers. He wouldn't have chosen us if there wasn't some guarantee by Bowman about his role with the Blackhawks in NHL.

 

[ColdSteel2]

A little story of the guy for those who don't know anything about him and are interested:

Everybody knew Antti Raanta was a talented individual, but with just talent he wasn't going to get the starting job in Lukko from Rauma since they would rather go with a experienced goalie that was solid and could play most of the season as the starter.

So their local rival, Ässät from Pori, decided to take a chance with the 21 yo goaltender. Even for a goaltender, Raanta was in poor physical shape and needed the quality physical training/activities Ässät could provide for him. Not to mention that the coaching for goaltenders had also been proved to be very good in the near past, with Jussi Rynnäs and Eero Kilpeläinen taking big steps forward during their time in the organization.

This all obviously also helped with the mental part of his game and mentally the final small, yet big, step was taken when in early 2013 he was the winning goalie against his former team Lukko in February. Before that game Raanta had always been good against every other team except the one he had played for in his youth, always giving up multiple goals on the first five or so shots of the game.

That particular game was played during the stretch that included 14 (of the team's 15 last) regular season games, of which he won 13 and lost one in OT. After that in the playoffs the team won 12 games out of 16 and ended up winning the championship after 35 years. Also ended up winning pretty much every possible individual award a goalie can in one year in the league and after the SM-liiga season had a solid showing in the World Championships.


As a goaltender he is calm, good with the stick, overall a solid goalie all around and had no clear technical weaknesses in the SM-liiga level. Very competitive, a bit of a showman, but also mature and has always stayed classy.

Will hope that he will get his fair share of games in the NHL next season and does well in them, but anything can happen so I won't predict anything.

Thatnks for posting, looking forward to seeing him in the indian head.

 

[Bubba88]

great signing. Heard about him all season long and could see him for Finland at the WC for 6 of the 7 games he played.
I liked what I saw and he deserves his NHL chance.

Sounds like Emery wants to test the market and wants a starting spot or compete for a starting spot. Raanta will be cheaper than him for sure. Look for them to bring back Karlsson as #3

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Very nice signing.

 

[Pailhead]

I'm also starting to wonder how much Bowman is actually tipping his hand on next year's goalie plans.

When we got Salak, another promising young European goalie that we all thought would be the backup for sure, Bowman made sure he had to compete for the spot by signing Emery.

Even if Emery isn't coming back next year, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bowman sign someone else just to make sure Raanta has to earn his NHL time.

The Blackhawks were able to do that because Emery was on a tryout. I'm guessing that Salak would have been the backup to start the season if the Blackhawks had been forced to give Emery an actual contract in order to get him into camp. Is there a goalie that will be in a similar situation this offseason?

I would guess that the plan is for Raanta to backup Crawford.

 

[Bubba88]

Crawford, Raanta with Hutton/Karlsson is good enough to go into the season.

we can always pick up a backup during the year

 

[Elvis P]

Antti Raanta

The Chicago Blackhawks have agreed to terms on an entry-level contract with standout free agent Finnish goaltender Antti Raanta. The 6-foot, 24-year-old had a breakout season this year in the Finnish Elite League where he was the regular-season and playoff MVP. In 45 games with Assat Pori, he was 21-10-11 with a .943 saves percentage. He also started for Finland in the World Championships where he finished 4-3 with a 2.09 goals-against average and .928 save percentage. Blackhawks starting goalie Corey Crawford still has one year remaining on his contract but backup Ray Emery is set to become an unrestricted free agent in July.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nhl/stor...ks-finland-goaltender-antti-raanta-agree-deal I hope he's good.

 

[Sarava]

I hope he's good too

 

[giza]

Raanta

Seems a lot of teams are having success with Swedish and Finnish goalies. This kid certainly put up some great numbers this year. Looks like Mr. Emery will be playing elsewhere next year----it was great to have 2 experienced goaltenders the past couple of years, but now success and finances have caught up with the Hawks. I have a good feeling about this signing though.

 

[Hawkscap]

You should just trust Q's decisions from now on.

You said the same thing when he picked Emery over Salak. This year, one had a 17-1 record in the NHL, the other wasn't even in North America anymore.

But was 25-15 with a .9309 save % in the SEL.

 

[w00d]

Chicago: Crawford, Raanta
Rockford: Karlsson, Simpson
Toledo: Carruth

Gone: Emery, Hutton, Richards

Not too bad of a goalie stable for next season.

 

[slappipappi]

Yeah, I could definitely see that happening with Emery. And to put my earlier point better, when countless members of the fan base are calling for Emery over Crawford, even in the middle of the playoffs, the love affair has gone too far. I get that everybody hates Crawford because of his...personality..WTF , but let's just go with the most talented guy we have, Crawford, and a promising young guy (Raanta) for the future that could potentially take over him if his price gets too high. Hawks could have another Turco situation if they lost Crawford and had nobody ready behind him.

This x100%

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

You don't see it happening if no other team offers Emery 1mil? Every team could offer him 900k, then the Hawks would only have to offer him 800k to stay.

Something like that COULD happen. Not saying it will.

no, my point is that it's not going to happen. he's going to get teams offering him more than he's making now. even with his injury problems in the past, he's still probably going to get offered a lot more than what the hawks could afford cap-wise.

i think if he comes back, it will not be because chicago offered him more money...it will be because they offer him a longer contract - but i'm just talking about the conditions under which i think he would return...i don't actually think it will happen.

 

[BDX]

A little story of the guy for those who don't know anything about him and are interested:

Everybody knew Antti Raanta was a talented individual, but with just talent he wasn't going to get the starting job in Lukko from Rauma since they would rather go with a experienced goalie that was solid and could play most of the season as the starter.

So their local rival, Ässät from Pori, decided to take a chance with the 21 yo goaltender. Even for a goaltender, Raanta was in poor physical shape and needed the quality physical training/activities Ässät could provide for him.

A nice little story but unfortunately pretty much BS.

 

[Elvis P]

Seems a lot of teams are having success with Swedish and Finnish goalies. This kid certainly put up some great numbers this year. Looks like Mr. Emery will be playing elsewhere next year----it was great to have 2 experienced goaltenders the past couple of years, but now success and finances have caught up with the Hawks. I have a good feeling about this signing though.

I do too. Finnish 2010 SC Champ and 2013 Vezina Finalist Niemi turned out to be pretty good.

 

[moose vasko]

We need to add depth at G whether or not this guy can step in and immediately replace Razor. Nice to be able to do it without having to give anything up. I don't expect all of these FA signings to pan out, but it 's good to see we are scouring the market for what's available and that guys are signing with us.

 

[Hawkaholic]

Emery was great this year. But at this point, it's time to start planning for the future. Crawford has played so well that he might price himself out and we need someone ready. I don't want another Turco. You want a 38 year old Vokoun? Because that's what would probably happen if we lost Crawford and had nobody behind him and minimal cap space.

Bringing back a guy for 1 year is hardly detrimental to the future. It might actually be better for the future if the guy plays 1 season in the AHL.

We would still have Raantas rights when Crawfords contract is up, so I'm not worried about another Turco situation.

I don't remember ever saying anything bad about this signing, it is great. I just don't think it would be a terrible move to bring back Emery on a cheaper contract (if possible) or another goalie on a cheap contract for competition.

 

[sob]

Not too bad

Sometimes overplaying but compensates that with good mobility. Often times he steals onetimers which should have been a goal.

Sometimes a showman, but compensates that with a very common-sense state of mind.

Raanta is not super-sized, but he is fast. You will find his lateral speed rather good. Is that good enough to NHL? Time will tell.

After two years in FEL as a starter, I'd say he is mentally very strong. Seems to have a twinkle in his eyes in every interview (I don't know how good his English is, though). During this year playoffs he had on semi-bad game (game 4 against Kalpa, when Ässät had the 1st chance to kill the series). After the loss, he had a shutout in the next game.

You can find guite a few youtube videos featuring Raanta. These are my favorites.

http://youtu.be/V_qseQ1rdUI

http://youtu.be/3whArxk0QBE

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Good signing

No downside IMO

 

[Illinihockey]

Wish we could find out the value of the contract

 

[MurrayBannerman]

I wanted this guy from when I heard about him. Very happy with this.

Also, Juzmo sighting!

 

[Oh_so_saad]

I didn't realize how short he was