Was/Is Kiprusoff over rated?

Bezer

Registered User
Aug 30, 2009
216
7
Calgary
What does he today anyway? I remember reading that he liked to spend his summers alone in the wilderness fishing or something like that. :laugh:

He also played beer league just outside of Calgary but he can't play goal and apparently he has a pretty bad shot lol..

Also I was told he was going back to Finland after his kids were done school. That was last year so I assume he is back in Finland.
 

Sleepy

rEf jOsE
Apr 7, 2009
3,839
530
Could be yes or no depending on how you look at him, as Kipper kind of had a weird career path. In San Jose he wasn't much different than say a Ben Scrivens. Got traded to Calgary at the age of 26, and immediately broke out as a Vezina caliber goalie. Stayed elite for a couple years, but maybe in part due to his large workload he was anywhere from a #5-15 league ranked goalie in the latter half of his Calgary career.

That's my impression at least.

Kipper was a highly rated prospect. However, his terrible performance in SJ during Nabby's holdout resulted in SJ having to move him for a low return (2nd rounder) and caving to Nabby's demands. He went to Calgary and became the goaltender SJ was grooming him to be. At least that 2nd rounder turned into Vlasic, who is probably the best $4.2M/yr UFA defenseman in the league right now.

I think Kipper was awesome. I also have a hard time evaluating goaltenders that only have success on one team because frankly it's tough when teams run different systems and allow different shot qualities from different positions. He worked beautifully within Calgary's system and was a very very good goaltender.
 

Some Other Flame

Registered User
Dec 4, 2010
7,336
8,667
If anything, Kiprusoff is underrated. As has been said, he masked a lot of the team's issues night after night.

Not get off topic, but this is correct. I believe they had a trade to send him to Toronto but he didn't want to waive his NTC (very understandable).

Not quite. He didn't have a NTC any longer, rather he told the Leafs he wouldn't sign an extension (Nonis wanted a veteran mentor for Reimer at the time, according to media reports anyway). He may have also stated he wouldn't report if traded.

Additional tidbit some will have forgotten here..
I will always have the additional association of Kipper with the burst of front-loaded-contracts...

If you remember back... Kipper and Darryl Sutter/Flames devised the first contract structure to circumvent the cap with the first extreme back diving contract... The first attempt was so extreme it was rejected by the league for breaking the loose initial CBA rules...
That's how blatant it was... It broke the '05 CBA rules! That was hard to do.

It started the ridiculousness we saw with the contracts up until the end of the last CBA.

Thanks Sutter/Kipper. heh heh..

That never happened.

Secondly, odd how the Flames and Sutter get blamed for the rise of those cap circumventing deals when the Flyers signed Briere to his 8 year/52M deal months prior. Briere was signed on July 1st of 2007, Kipper on October 29 2007.
 

SaintMorose

Registered User
Jul 21, 2009
3,928
520
Look at our roster from 04-10 and figure out how that group managed to be among the leagues best in consistency over 90 points each season.
We were a 2-man team no matter what we did and it was Kipper then Iginla during that span.
 

Frenchy

Administrator
Sep 16, 2006
26,125
9,359
϶(°o°)ϵ
He wasnt overrated , in fact he was underrated . He gave the Flames a chance to win every night , he was a wall infront of his net .
 

Poulin 0n My St1ck

Registered User
Oct 18, 2010
3,054
1,720
I used to watch Kipper a lot when I had the Center Ice package, and he was a fantastic goaltender. Loved the Flames when they had Iggy and Kipper.

I think he would've gotten more recognition if he played in a bigger market on the East Coast, but I definitely recognized and admired his skill.
 

demonsurge

Registered User
Dec 6, 2006
278
0
Without #1 Kiprusoff and a distant #2 of Iggy, we'd be talking about how Edmonton might catch up with Calgary for the amount of first overalls in a row.
 

Anglesmith

Setting up the play?
Sep 17, 2012
46,442
14,718
Victoria
Without #1 Kiprusoff and a distant #2 of Iggy, we'd be talking about how Edmonton might catch up with Calgary for the amount of first overalls in a row.

Iginla a distant #2 is a bit of a stretch. There was a time, albeit a short time, that Iginla was the best player in the NHL bar none, and a considerably longer stretch where he was the league's best captain. He deserves equal credit for making the team competitive.

Anyway, yeah, you don't need to minimize the effect other players just to make Kipper seem great. His play over the years spoke for itself.
 

HarrySPlinkett

Not a film critic
Feb 4, 2010
2,854
2,189
Calgary
No. A case could be made that the rest of the team was overrated because of him.

This can't be repeated enough. The best forward on the roster between 2004 and 2012 not named Iginla was Daymond Langkow. Think about that.

The defense was always a bit over-rated. Robyn Regehr was very good though. I don't think Sutter deserves as much criticism as he gets for being GM, but I will say that one of his most under-discussed moves is the gift-wrapping of Tony Lydman to Buffalo. We would later sign Bryan Marchment.

Kiprusoff was a truly sublime goaltender. When you cook up a goalie in a lab, you get Kipper. His temperament, the way he moved, his glove, his ability to knock pucks out of midair with appendages not usually designed for that specific use... All of it is how we amateur goalies wished we could play the position.

He was also a criminally underrated puck handler. His hockey sense was incredible, so he'd never be put in a bad position when he went to play it. But Kiprusoff would stop so many pucks behind the net, and then make a calm, tape-to-tape pass to the open D. Forehand or backhand, it didn't matter. And he rarely made the wrong decision.

The downfall with Miikka was always Games played. His Vezina year, when he was still south of thirty, and had two weeks off because of the Olympics, he couldn't handle the workload. It was really obvious - there were three or four goals that Anaheim scored in the playoffs that wouldn't have gone in at any point during the regular season. And from then on, you could always see exactly when he started to tire out. After he played his 65 game, the rest of the year was going to be a mixed bag.

I always cite that Patrick Roy never played 70 games his entire career, and only once even played 65 his entire time in Colorado. It was baffling that Darryl never invested resources in a proper backup who could play 20 games a year and win ten. A fresh Kiprusoff in March would have been a game changer.

People in Calgary will often lament that the team couldn't win build a cup winner around Iggy. It's astonishing that they couldn't build a winner around Kiprusoff.
 

Ducks in a row

Go Ducks Quack Quack
Dec 17, 2013
18,004
4,356
U.S.A.
He was a great goalie who was a workhorse. He was a huge huge reason why the Flames had been as good as they had been. Had a great playoffs in 2004 being so very close to winning the Stanley Cup.

 

serge2k

Registered User
Sep 16, 2006
15,116
3
If anything he is underrated. Barely anyone remembers him now, it seems like a forgotten memory to the average fan. He carried a mediocre team while facing an extremely heavy load.

He mostly carried them to mediocre to bad finishes though.

That's not a knock against him, just an explanation for why no one really remembers. He wasn't good enough to carry a team that bad to a good finish.
 

chunkylover53

Registered User
Nov 26, 2013
5,031
23
He mostly carried them to mediocre to bad finishes though.

That's not a knock against him, just an explanation for why no one really remembers. He wasn't good enough to carry a team that bad to a good finish.

Very few goalies can do that... he did it for a few seasons and won the Vezina during that stretch.
 

SladeWilson23

I keep my promises.
Sponsor
Nov 3, 2014
26,735
3,220
New Jersey
As a flame fan i honestly believe Kipper was the biggest reason we weren't always in the basement, if anything i found him to be underrated. He was hung out to dry every season it seemed. he could win us games we had absolutely no business winning. with kipper you have to watch the games to understand stats tell nothing about how great he actually was. I MISS HIM SOOO MUCH :'( his athleticism and flexibility always blew me away.

side note: alwasy LOVED his mask very identifable :) always looked pretty similar but i miss it
the_mask___miikka_kiprusoff_by_cortender-d4zfewi.jpg


Edit: its great to see him getting so much respect in this thread :)

Yep. Awesome masks.
 

TCsmyth

Registered User
Mar 25, 2011
1,330
257
Ludicrous to even suggest that Kipper was over-rated. Very good case to be made that he should hit some high level on all-time greatest lists. Most fans would not likely rate his name higher than many more recognizable net minders making me think he would be under-rated by the vast majority...tremendous player consistently, for a long time.

Nothing against Jimmy Howard, but to mention him as a comparable makes my point for me. Kipper almost won a cup for a very mediocre team.
 

Jyrki

Benning has been purged! VANmen!
May 24, 2011
13,158
2,095
溫哥華
I think any fan from the Northwest Division can attest to Kipper being a great goaltender through and through.
 

AfroThunder396

[citation needed]
Jan 8, 2006
39,056
22,927
Miami, FL
Kiprusoff is a poor man's Marty Brodeur. Huge workload, mentally unflappable, almost made it look too easy. Raw numbers are unimpressive on the surface but look better in context. Both goalies spent their best seasons making mediocre teams look much better than they actually were.

I look favorably on Kirusoff and am glad he was able to get a Vezina before he hung them up. Excellent player that doesn't get enough praise.
 

Ace88*

Guest
Just about one year ago, Karri Ramo recorded the first shutout by a Flames goaltender not named Miikka Kiprusoff in 9 years and 10 months.

From 2005-2012, Kiprusoff had 273 wins, while all other Flames goalies combined for 22 wins.

tell you everything you need to know :laugh:
 

Ace88*

Guest
This can't be repeated enough. The best forward on the roster between 2004 and 2012 not named Iginla was Daymond Langkow. Think about that.

The defense was always a bit over-rated. Robyn Regehr was very good though. I don't think Sutter deserves as much criticism as he gets for being GM, but I will say that one of his most under-discussed moves is the gift-wrapping of Tony Lydman to Buffalo. We would later sign Bryan Marchment.

Kiprusoff was a truly sublime goaltender. When you cook up a goalie in a lab, you get Kipper. His temperament, the way he moved, his glove, his ability to knock pucks out of midair with appendages not usually designed for that specific use... All of it is how we amateur goalies wished we could play the position.

He was also a criminally underrated puck handler. His hockey sense was incredible, so he'd never be put in a bad position when he went to play it. But Kiprusoff would stop so many pucks behind the net, and then make a calm, tape-to-tape pass to the open D. Forehand or backhand, it didn't matter. And he rarely made the wrong decision.

The downfall with Miikka was always Games played. His Vezina year, when he was still south of thirty, and had two weeks off because of the Olympics, he couldn't handle the workload. It was really obvious - there were three or four goals that Anaheim scored in the playoffs that wouldn't have gone in at any point during the regular season. And from then on, you could always see exactly when he started to tire out. After he played his 65 game, the rest of the year was going to be a mixed bag.

I always cite that Patrick Roy never played 70 games his entire career, and only once even played 65 his entire time in Colorado. It was baffling that Darryl never invested resources in a proper backup who could play 20 games a year and win ten. A fresh Kiprusoff in March would have been a game changer.

People in Calgary will often lament that the team couldn't win build a cup winner around Iggy. It's astonishing that they couldn't build a winner around Kiprusoff.

this is one of the most accurate, truth-filled posts you will ever see on hf
 

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