Russian Goalies, what’s in the water?

[rangerdanger]

ITS crazy right now how many outstanding European keepers there are and how many Euro GK prospects are on their way.

Especially Russian. I guess the Finns also to an extent.

It seems to me at least that the % of elite and near elite Euro keepers far exceeds North American keepers. And those Euro GK seem to cluster in Russia and Finland. What are they doing over there to produce such high grade GK products?

Between Vasilievsky, SAmsonov, Sorokin, Shesterkin, Bobrovsky, Varlamov, Georgiev, Nedjelovic and I’m sure I’m forgetting others, Russia is producing a lot of elite or at least high end level talent. Finland isn’t far behind probably, with sweden coming in 3rd.

And while there are still a lot of great NA keepers and GK prospects, they don’t quite seem to have as many in that high end to elite territory. Sure Oettinger and Knight come to mind. Bishop, Binnington, Dubnyk, and other NA GKs are out there. But comparing % of NA to European overall in hockey, Euros seem to be producing higher % at a higher level.

I mean this stream of recent high end GK prospects out of Russia especially seems crazy. In a few seasons, 4 or 5 of the top 10 Goalies in the NHL could be Russian.

[LuigiC173]

I couldn't tell ya but Georgiev is actually Bulgarian.

[Dennis]

Nedjelovic is American.

[PenguinHunter]

Hart is Canadian!

[VincentVega]

Vodka, obviously.

[agentzero]

Nedjelovic is American.

With a Serbian name lol.


The Finns had a good production run. Before that it was the province of Quebec. Interesting it’s the Russians now.

[rangerdanger]

I couldn't tell ya but Georgiev is actually Bulgarian.

Interesting. I guess I should have broadened it to ex Soviet block.

And regarding Nedeljovic (I usually spell it wrong). Even some of our North American future studs are Russian (or some ex soviet area) by descent.

[Stalinism]

In Finland, their system is more comparable to soccer clubs when it comes to development. Picture each one like a giant pyramid where even the lower tier minor hockey teams are in an organization where at the top is their elite league senior teams. This helps a lot when it comes to development because the teams near the top help build/develop the skills younger teams from the bottom. In particular, this has been done for goalies for quite a few years. Now the results are showing with good prospect after good prospect. Usually, they've had a great deal of goalie specific, quality coaching their whole lives. Where in Canada and USA, it's not always the case.

[lucafen4]

you could ask the same question about Jamaican sprinters

[2014olympicgold]

Some of the top European/Russian prospects:
Samsonov - Russian
Merzlikins - Latvian
Shesterkin - Russian
Sorokin - Russian
Luukkonen - Finnish
Gustavsson - Swedish
Tarasov - Russian
Sandstrom - Swedish
Husso - Finnish
Kahkonen - Finnish
Kaskisuo - Finnish

Why do goalies in Europe seem to be superior to NA goalies? I dunno. Wonder if it has to do with lifestyle. 90% of what I've watched is European/Russian goalies seem to be more flexible at a younger age than NA goalies. So maybe it's tending styles are different that lets European goalies start out stronger, where more NA goalies seem to need maturing, and based on the goalies size vs athleticism.

Tough to say, maybe yoga is more common overseas (Europe/Russia/Scandinavia)

[chuckcouples]

This may be a case of you seeing what you want to see.

Here are the top 10 Vezina Trophy Vote Receivers from the previous few years: (I apologize for the poor formatting)

2018/19 2017/18 2016/17 2015/16
1 Russian 1 Fin 1 Russian 1 Canadian
2 American 2 American 2 Canadian 2 American
3 Swede 3 Russian 3 Canadian 3 American
4 Canadian 4 Dane 4 Canadian 4 Canadian
5 Canadian 5 Canadian 5 Canadian 5 Canadian
5 Canadian 6 Fin 6 Canadian 6 American
7 Canadian 7 Fin 7 American
7 Fin 8 Russian 7 Canadian
9 Russian 9 Canadian 9 Canadian
10 Dane 9 American
10 American
10 Swede

In the previous 4 NHL seasons only 2 Russian goalies (Bobrovsky, Vasilevski) received Vezina votes and only 2 Finnish goalies (Rinne and Rask) received votes.

The single biggest reason that people think that Russian goaltending prospects are so good is because scoring in the KHL is so much lower than the in North American leagues.

[lucafen4]

These are both partially correct & partially flawed.

ITS crazy right now how many outstanding European keepers there are and how many Euro GK prospects are on their way.

Especially Russian. I guess the Finns also to an extent.

It seems to me at least that the % of elite and near elite Euro keepers far exceeds North American keepers. And those Euro GK seem to cluster in Russia and Finland. What are they doing over there to produce such high grade GK products?

Between Vasilievsky, SAmsonov, Sorokin, Shesterkin, Bobrovsky, Varlamov, Georgiev, Nedjelovic and I’m sure I’m forgetting others, Russia is producing a lot of elite or at least high end level talent. Finland isn’t far behind probably, with sweden coming in 3rd.

And while there are still a lot of great NA keepers and GK prospects, they don’t quite seem to have as many in that high end to elite territory. Sure Oettinger and Knight come to mind. Bishop, Binnington, Dubnyk, and other NA GKs are out there. But comparing % of NA to European overall in hockey, Euros seem to be producing higher % at a higher level.

I mean this stream of recent high end GK prospects out of Russia especially seems crazy. In a few seasons, 4 or 5 of the top 10 Goalies in the NHL could be Russian.

There's a lot more Russian goalies prospects than there use to be coming up, agreed.
You can't just ignore the North American goalies in this analysis. Hart, Demko, Knight etc... They're legit top end G prospects. There's a fair amount as well. also a significant increase in US Goalie prospects from a decade ago.

This may be a case of you seeing what you want to see.

Here are the top 10 Vezina Trophy Vote Receivers from the previous few years: (I apologize for the poor formatting)

2018/19 2017/18 2016/17 2015/16
1 Russian 1 Fin 1 Russian 1 Canadian
2 American 2 American 2 Canadian 2 American
3 Swede 3 Russian 3 Canadian 3 American
4 Canadian 4 Dane 4 Canadian 4 Canadian
5 Canadian 5 Canadian 5 Canadian 5 Canadian
5 Canadian 6 Fin 6 Canadian 6 American
7 Canadian 7 Fin 7 American
7 Fin 8 Russian 7 Canadian
9 Russian 9 Canadian 9 Canadian
10 Dane 9 American
10 American
10 Swede

In the previous 4 NHL seasons only 2 Russian goalies (Bobrovsky, Vasilevski) received Vezina votes and only 2 Finnish goalies (Rinne and Rask) received votes.

The single biggest reason that people think that Russian goaltending prospects are so good is because scoring in the KHL is so much lower than the in North American leagues.

and
It's true not a lot of Russians over the past decade have made Vezina finalist voting

but,
The OP is referring to Russian G prospects. Not discussing current #1 Russian goalies in the NHL. That's part of the purpose of the OP's post - from my interpretation - the drastic increase in the number of Russian G prospects we discuss. Ten years ago.. there were 3? 4? Now there's seemingly 20.

No one's mentioned Provestov or Konovolov yet either or Kotchetkov

Yes there's an increase in international goalies and especially Russian Goalie presence in prospect pools - same could be said for Russian defencemen as well. Prior to Provorov it didn't seem like Russia developed Dmen for 10 year.

I think it goes to show Russia's investment into their developmental program top to bottom vs. just elite forwards.