He had a great tournament. I don’t want to take anything away from him, but I feel some are overdoing the praise.
Canada: 37/40 saves (.925 SV%)
USA Game 1: 30/33 saves (.909 SV%)
Slovakia: 33/36 saves (.917 SV%)
Sweden: 43/46 saves (.935 SV%)
USA Game 2: 36/40 saves (.900 SV%)
Only two of the five big games he hit a .920 SV%. He allowed 3 or more in all of the big games.
Of course, SV% isn’t an end all be all stat and the Finnish defense wasn’t very good. They needed him to be their best player to get as close as they did to winning the tournament.
He performed better than all these highly regarded drafted goaltenders like Augustine, Hrabal, and George.
Beyond the stats, I think that was shown. There were a few saves he made that single-handedly extended the GMG longer than it should’ve went. One save in the shot column wouldn’t do some of these saves justice.
And he’s had a very good season in Liiga. I think that alone would’ve put him on the radar for the draft.
At the same time, I don’t think you can say he was dominant or unbeatable. As the stats show, he was beatable. He didn’t even have the best SV% at the tournament. And when it comes to the draft, his size will be an impediment for some teams, as will the re-draft status.
I think you set the bar at Nabakov, and go from there. The situations seem comparable, even if there are a few differences (Nabakov an inch taller and more proven in a better league, while Rimpinen two years younger at the time and had a very good WJC that we never saw from Nabakov). Nabakov went 38. That seems like the starting point with Rimpinen.