Those who know me know the line well: “I don’t evaluate goalies because goalies are voodoo,” and they are. No question about it. So it goes without saying that my acid reflux kicked in immediately when the Oilers drafted Eemil Vinni in the second round of the 2024 draft. This doesn’t have anything to do with where Vinni was picked or picking a goalie at all. Instead, my indigestion relates to assessing Eemil Vinni in terms of where he rates as an Edmonton Oilers prospect.

Fortunately, I was exposed to this player when I attended the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Red Deer in the Summer of 2022. Vinni was not the starting goalie for Finland at this tournament, but he stepped in for Game 2 against the United States after Finland lost its opening game to Czechia 4-3 in front of Petteri Rimpinen. Vinni finished the tourney with a bronze model, going 3-1 in four games with a .927 save percentage and a 1.75 goals against average. The wild part of this is that Vinni was 16 at this time when the tournament was laden with 17-year-old players for the most part.

Other than the bronze medal game, the game that stuck out the most to me was their second round-robin game against the Americans. The USA team is typically not a strong group at Hlinka because it is the start of the year-long build to the U18 World Championships. However, Finland was coming off a loss to Czechia with their starting goalie, and any loss here eliminated them from the tournament.

Vinni was superb in this game. He saved 30 of 31 and made several clutch saves when the game was in doubt, leading Finland to a 4-1 win. For me, Vinni has two very strong traits. The first is he is a very athletic goalie for someone who is 6’3″. Here are a couple of sequences from the game that show Vinni’s athleticism.

For a big man, Vinni moves laterally very well. He is also quite economic in his movements for the most part.

The other part of Vinni’s game that is notable is his puckhandling. He handles the puck very easily and can make 15-foot passes to players in motion just as easily as he can rimming the puck up the wall. This is an aspect of the game that I believe will continue to play a more prominent role as players get bigger and faster but play on the same size ice surface. Vinni can and will help his defencemen an incredible amount by relieving forecheck pressure off of them.

Vinni’s next steps are uncertain as a drafted player. He is listed as a roster player for a Liiga program, HHIK. However, he has yet to see the ice in the pre-season. This may mean nothing or something. The other interesting upcoming event is at the U20 5 Nations Cup in Zug, Switzerland at the end of the month. Vinni making that team would be a little surprising but would be a welcome one should it occur.

Regardless of the next season, no team drafts a goalie in the second round without a view that the player will be a first-string goalie in the NHL. Vinni is a long ways off in terms of whether this happens, but it will be an intriguing watch along the way.