Re: Oilers sign undrafted Finnish standout goalie to ELC
Originally Posted by
Jouko-Pouko
Laurikainen was not great during his junior years, that's probably why he went undrafted. He had two good but not great seasons in WHL but he was already 19 when he started playing there. This season, he surprisingly stole the starting job in Espoo Blues in the top Finnish league, and he was amazing. One of the best goalies in the league. That was very unexpected, so it will be very interesting to see how his next season goes. Was it a fluke season or is he for real? I'm not even going to guess because I can never predict goalies.
He's not the biggest guy out there (6'0") but still only 22 years old, so worth a shot for sure.
I was hoping you would chime in and offer some background on the guy Jouko-Pouko.
From what I am reading, the Oilers plan on starting him out in the ECHL and hoping he can battle Broissot for some playing time in the AHL. He's obviously a bit of an NHL project but they are hoping they have found some sort of lightning in a bottle here. They need young goalie depth in their system and hopefully he can bring just that.
10 Team, Points Only, Cash League
25 Man Roster (no position), top 20 point getters count at end of month
Keep 20/25 at seasons end, Cut 5 to FA for redrafting
Goalie points W=2pt L=-1pt SHO=2pt
Stamkos, Tavares, Eichel, Mercer, JRobertson, RThomas, Kucherov, Nugent-Hopkins, Tuch, KConnor, Necas, Point, Konecny, SJarvis, Cozenz, Morrissey, Bouchard, Josi, Novak, Tolvanen, Peterka, SBennett
G- Vasilevskiy, Sorokin, Oettinger
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