This guy's numbers are eye-popping. His career in the NHL spanned from 1988-92. His career numbers with Minnesota and San Jose are as follows.
39 GP
4 Wins, 27 Losses, 1 Tie
.859 Sv %
5.23 GAA
In recent times, is he the worst statistical goalie? I don't recall watching him play, but I am curious how a guy like this even gets in 39 games.
I thought that Mike O'Neill was awful, and he was, but this guy is worse.
Does anyone recall anything about this guy? Was there ever any prospect of him being a serviceable NHL player? Did he have this unseen potential despite the awful stats?
Thanks in advance.
Myllys’ abysmal NHL stats have been brought up here once in a while and it always feels personal to me. He’s the greatest player in Luleå HF history and — I argue — was the best goalie in the world between at least 1994 and 1996. The last great stand up goaltender.
Why did Finland wait until 2022 to win their first Olympic gold in hockey? It’s an explanation as simple as them resting their #1 goalie in the 1994 semifinals against the Canadians, which paved the road for a huge upset at their hands. Good for the Swedes: the legend of Peter Forsberg would never have happened had he played Myllys in the finals.
Of course he brought the Finns their first World Championship title the next year. They asked the cheering crowd of fans in Helsinki afterwards, “who’s the best goalie in the world?”: “JARMO” they answered, resoundingly. Get goosebumps seeing that clip. Of course, we knew this in Luleå already, but it was the next year he brought us our first and only Swedish championship. His Luleå and Team Finland teammate Mika Nieminen did the flamingo in the 1995 semifinals so we had to get rid of him first.
Okay.
I watched Myllys many times over the years he played for Luleå, but I was a kid. I seem to vaguely recall the 1995 World Championship finals as a very early memory of watching hockey, but I didn’t see Luleå win in 1996. I started elementary school the following fall, and remember Luleå being champions. In the schoolyard playing land hockey/floorball and stuff, Myllys was already a legend, kids wanted to be him and play goalie, he made the position cool and his play, on-ice personality and legendary status has probably played a huge role in making Luleå something of a goalie factory in more recent times, where prospects like Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt chose to go to further their development. Anders Nilsson and Joel Lassinantti are two examples of goalies from Luleå who grew up idolizing Myllys, one having an alright international career and the other consistently among the top goalies in the SHL. For his heroics with Team Finland, goalies like Tuukka Rask and Kari Lehtonen had Myllys as their idol growing up.
But me mostly being between ~7-12 watching Myllys from the stands, I can’t probably describe him very accurately or fairly. Watching him nowadays, his style looks as ridiculous as most old school goalies of the era does. I remember he made cool, eye catching saves. I remember him playing the puck a lot, in fact: most of my memories of him might be taking delay of game-penalties for clearing the puck over the boards. I also remember him being hot-headed and feisty, whacking away at or start fighting opponents who got too close to his crease and the like. But he had some crazy stats too. Can’t remember the details, but he had some awesome stretch where he posted a ton of shutouts somewhere in his and Luleå’s late 90s glory years.
Myllys is surrounded by some fun stories too. The most common description of him is probably “he was an offensive goalie”. He shot and scored two goals while with us, and he posted a pretty sizable amount of assists too. One story I heard was of a young prospect who’d got a shot with the pro team, and was visibly very anxious and nervous, which Myllys noted. To calm the kid down, Myllys told him: “Take it easy, just get to the offensive blue line and I’ll give you the puck for an easy breakaway”. Something like that.
Yeah, a legend and a beauty. Not the worst. Don’t rest him in 1994, give him another shot in the NHL in 1997, he’d have Olympic and World Championship gold medals, a Swedish championship, and a Stanley Cup.
