How about Mikko Koskinen?

Newsworthy

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Jan 28, 2018
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Looking at his career what in the world did the Islanders do with him after they drafted him ? He barely played ( stats aren't that terrible in the minors ) in AHL , ECHL and then they just out exiled him to back to Finland . What the hell ? They used a pretty high draftpick in 2009 with #31 to draft him and then just completely gave up on him within a couple of year because he wasn't an NHL goalie in his early 20 yet.
Anders Nilsson was the better prospect for awhile. Mikko was ineffective at a young age after his draft year and was hurt. He's the definition of a late bloomer. Most Islanders fans liked him and the organization did not give up on him easily. Hes 30 years old and has been effective in the KHL for only the last few years.
 
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Skolman

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Feb 16, 2018
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He’s having a hot streak. Oilers are a terrible team and have terrible management. Make this thread in March and we’ll see if he’s actually a decent goalie
Try and stay relivent for once.
 

ovythegiraffe

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Nov 26, 2018
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I think he has been a great goalie for a few seasons already in KHL. NHL starter level yet to be determined yet but off to a very good start. Working your way up as goalie is such a crazy hard job. You get couple of tryout games as a prospect and if for some reason your team lets in a lot of goals in those games, doesn't matter if you played good or bad, you can expect to put in serious work standing on your head for multiple years in lesser leagues to maybe get that second shot. Must be so stressful.
 

BKarchitect

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Oct 12, 2017
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Kansas City, MO
Actually very happy for Koskinen because it gives me some hope Francousz may be able to make the same jump. Obviously as Atas pointed out he’s not in the NHL because the Avs have Varlamov and Grubauer already in net but Frank’s been mostly excellent in his AHL transition to North America, one of the top save %s in the AHL and keeping a low scoring Eagles team competitive.

He’s done everything needed to get the same shot by next year in the NHL as Koskinen has this season. Whether that with the Avs (Varly a pending free agent) or another club looking for low risk potential in net.

Anyways, nice to see these kinds of moves pan out for the player - it’s not without risk to come over as a KHL star and have to earn your way all over again through an NHL organizational meat grinder. Koskinen clearly had the right mentality to overcome some very early stumbles and shine.
 

McCombo

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Nov 16, 2013
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Anders Nilsson was the better prospect for awhile. Mikko was ineffective at a young age after his draft year and was hurt. He's the definition of a late bloomer. Most Islanders fans liked him and the organization did not give up on him easily. Hes 30 years old and has been effective in the KHL for only the last few years.

08-09 in FEL 17-9-7. 1,91 GAA, 93,2 sv%.
North America
11-12 in FEL 13-5-4. 2,30 GAA, 91,7 sv%.
12-13 in FEL 21-15-13. 2,05 GAA, 91,9 sv%.
13-14 in KHL 20-11-8. 1,70 GAA, 93,9 sv%.
14-15 in KHL (Sibir) 16-11-1. 2,22 GAA, 92,1 sv%.
14-15 in KHL (SKA) 9-8-2. 1,89 GAA, 92,7 sv%.
15-16 in KHL 20-18-0. 2,42 GAA, 91,5 sv%.
16-17 in KHL 14-6-3. 2,08 GAA, 91,6 sv%.
17-18 in KHL 22-4-1. 1,57 GAA, 93,7 sv%.
And now 8-2-1 in NHL.

Those are regular season stats only. You can check playoff stats too, they are even better. And he has been great in national team too.
That just doesn't scream late-bloomer to me. He was beast already 08-09 season in FEL as a 20 year old. He just wins, no matter where he has gone. Except the first stint in NA.
 

stopclickbait

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Aug 28, 2018
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He looked great in the KHL people like to downplay it because he played on a great SKA St Petersberg team. There were many games he would make big saves. Maybe I just caught him on his good days but I really enjoyed his calm demeanor hopefully he keeps up his great play and he is another Tim Thomas feel good story.
 

serp

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Jan 17, 2016
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Wish we got to see the battle of the two biggest NHL netminders today with Bishop vs Koskinen. Sadly we won't since Stars will start Khudobin .
 

CycloneSweep

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Sep 27, 2017
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Seems kind of unfair....I mean if anyone other then mcdavid could score talbot would not be such a oiler whipping boy.
I don't think our lack of scoring has anything to do with Talbot's horrid save percentage or goals against average.
 

serp

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Jan 17, 2016
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He hasn't let in a single center ice goal yet? Then you haven't seen the whole Koskinen yet.



Shit happens . Even the best goalies give up terrible goals from time to time. Its how you bounce back from giving up a bad goal thats important . Some completely collapse others can just shake it off like nothing happened.

Koskinen gave up a terrible goal to the Kings that luckily for him got called back due to offside and it didn't seem to bother him too much.
 
Jan 29, 2009
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Same old story of a new goalie having a good start. Things will balance out.. especially behind that putrid Oilers roster and defense. Expect to see his stats tank and Edmonton out of the playoff race by February.

Good for him for starting out well though.
 
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Atas2000

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Jan 18, 2011
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That's why he has worse stats in the AHL?
As is Samsonov, as were Vasilevskiy's stats in the AHL...

If you want to play the useless stats without context card here we go:

Vasilevskiy in the first year in the AHL: 2.45 .917
Francouz in the first year in the AHL: 2.76 .916 (through 17 starts so far btw. sample size)

And while we are at it Koskinen in his first year in the AHL: 3.49 .892 (being the 36 starts from 2010-11 . the two games in the season before are really not enough)

It seems you don't really know how to evaluate goaltenders.
 

Sugi21

Registered User
Dec 7, 2016
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Imagine a player improving and regressing year by year... Crazy thought I know
Talbot is a career back up goalie. He was a back up in NY and when he was traded to Oilers the guy had one hell of a season as a starter and now he’s back to his career norm as a back up. I wouldn’t necessarily call it regressing he just played above his pay grade one season and now he’s back to normal playing back up.
 

ijuka

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May 14, 2016
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Finnish fans knew he was great.

He doesn't even need to do much, really. He can just sit in the net and probably be at .900+ because he's like 6'7.
 

qwerty

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Feb 4, 2007
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Calgary
Koskinen is gonna get paid this summer. The sheer number of struggling goaltenders this season coupled with a finite number of UFA goaltenders on the market means Koskinen is going to have many suitors to choose from driving that price up. Not sure the Oilers can afford to pay both him and Chiasson’s raises.
 

Oil Spill

Net Detective
Jan 21, 2013
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One of Chia’s few good moves.

The season would probably be over if we rolled with the Talbot/Montoya tandem.

Wouldn't even give Chia that much credit for it, Kurri told Gretzky to look at him and Gretzky pushed hard for Chia to sign him.
 

tfong

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Pretty good sofar. Small sample size though, I mean Talbot came in and played great for the Oils in the first year too. So i'll hold judgement till I see how it plays out the entire way.
 

JarvisFunk

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Apr 1, 2012
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Saskatoon
As is Samsonov, as were Vasilevskiy's stats in the AHL...

If you want to play the useless stats without context card here we go:

Vasilevskiy in the first year in the AHL: 2.45 .917
Francouz in the first year in the AHL: 2.76 .916 (through 17 starts so far btw. sample size)

And while we are at it Koskinen in his first year in the AHL: 3.49 .892 (being the 36 starts from 2010-11 . the two games in the season before are really not enough)

It seems you don't really know how to evaluate goaltenders.
I'm only going by what is available right now, and those stats show Koskinen is better, not stats from eight years ago. I thought we were evaluating current performance, how is that irrelevant? Don't be bitter because you are wrong.
 
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