Say what? He had 3 statistically good seasons in the NHL (at least as far as SV% goes). Before and after that he played in the Czech league, which is pretty much irrelevant for this discussion. He also had a back-breaking tendency to let in crappy goals. Like Tim Thomas.
Of course quality of Czech extraleague or international competition in 90s are well below NHL quality of play during the same time.
Because of this you would expect from Cechmanek to completely and consistently dominate that competition over longer period of time - which he did.
He was the best non-NHL goalie for a period of 5 years and his incredibly fast adjustment to NHL in advanced age is telling you that his 95-00 form would be just as good and delivered the same results as his 00-03 NHL form - if not even better.
Here are Cechmanek´s acomplischments and stats in his full prime:
1994-95
- 1st league title, best extraleague goalie award
- Turek´s backup in WC 95, played one game (90,24 %)
1995-96
- 2nd league title, best extraleague goalie award
- gold medal in WC 96, Turek´s backup, didn´t play
1996-97
- 3rd league title, best extraleague goalie award, play-off MVP
- bronze medal in WC 97, played as a starter, eight games and 92,92 %
1997-98
- 4th league title, best extraleague goalie award
- gold medal in Nagano 98, Hasek´s backup, didn´t play
- bronze medal in WC 98, Hnilicka´s backup, played two games (92,86 %)
1998-99
- 5th league title, best extraleague goalie award
- gold medal in WC 99, co-starters with Hnilicka, played five games (90,00 %)
1999-00
- did not win title (Vsetin lost finals to Sparta), did not win best extraleague goalie award (lost to Briza I think, Sparta´s goalie)
- gold medal in WC 2000, played as a starter, won Directoriate´s best goalie award, also named All-star goalie of the tournament, played eight games (92,45 %)
-- Came to Philadelphia, immediately became a starter --
2000-01
- 2nd All-star NHL goalie, 2nd in Vezina (behind Hasek), 4th in Hart voting, 3rd best save percentage and GSAA
2001-02
- Hasek´s backup in Salt lake city 02, didn´ t play
- 6th in All-star voting, 3rd best save percentage, 7th best GSAA
2002-03
- 5th in All-star voting, 7th in Vezina voting, won Jennings trophy, 3rd best save percentage and 4th best GSAA