Different time though.. back then it wasn't crazy to think that a Euro goalie could step into the NHL.
It really doesn't happen much anymore. The road to the NHL for a goalie is the AHL.
I'm willing to be of the top 30 goalies in the NHL.. they all spent time in the A first. Mrazek, Francouze, Rittich, Vladar, Vanecek did. The outlier being Vejmelka who came in from extraliga and did it (totally unheard of and maybe part of Arizona's 'plan'.lol).
Unless that has changed and someone wants to give me some examples of the lsat 5 years and euro goalies stepping into NHL directly? I just googled Hart and even he did the A.