Net-Net: Searching for Goalie Prospects

The first time Sasu Hovi saw Niklas Kokko play at the 2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament, a premier U18 summer showcase tournament, the Kraken European amateur scout was immediately impressed by both Kokko’s moves and his demeanor.

“He was self-confident, didn’t hesitate in front of shooters,” said Hovi on Monday morning at Kraken Community Iceplex ahead of week-long amateur scouting meetings in preparation for the NHL Draft in late June. “I saw a player who’s competitive and wants to win and wants to make saves. He checked all of the boxes I need to get interested in a goalie.”

Hovi, a former goaltender himself in Finland’s top pro league, Liiga, watched Kokko a lot during the 2021-22 season. Kokko enjoyed some good outings and struggled at times, but Hovi stayed interested. He liked Kokko’s penchant for bouncing back from any adversity on the ice: “I saw the potential, so when I came to our final meetings [in 2022], I went with my gut feeling.”

Drafting Kokko in 2022 Second Round

Kraken goalie scout Andrew Allen was working with his own positive instincts about Kokko, who was selected No. 58 overall by Seattle as one of four second-round selections GM Ron Francis had stockpiled for the 2022 draft. At the pre-draft meetings, the two scouts made their case to pick Kokko, the second goalie taken, 17 spots after fellow Finnish goalie Topias Leinonen. Both scouts had noticed other NHL goalie scouts showing up regularly for Kokko’s starts, plus the two Kraken staffers were working their contacts to gauge which teams might go relatively high for a goalie choice.

“The goal is to gain information with giving it,” said Allen, smiling during a lunch break early this week.

Fast-forward to this season: Kokko was in net for Finland in a big preliminary-round win over Sweden at this past winter’s IIHF World Junior Championship (fellow Finn and 2022 Kraken second-rounder Jani Nyman scored the game-winning shootout goal), then faced some challenges along with his teammates in the medal round. The 20-year-old goalie returned to his Karpat club to discover his spot was now going to a veteran goaltender. He was soon loaned to Pelicans, another team in Liiga.

Kokko Breaks Out in Liiga

The rest is happy recent history and affirmation of Kokko's bounce-back qualities: After posting a .906 save percentage in a dozen earlier-season games with Karpat, Kokko notched a 9-0-3 record in Pelicans' net with a 1.49 goals-against average and .926 save percentage. He upped his story arc even more in the postseason, helping the Pelicans win a quarterfinal and semifinal series, going 8-4 with a 1.54 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. Kokko continued outstanding work in the Liiga final, but Pelicans ultimately fell to three-peat champion Tappara.

Kokko’s achievements made headlines in Finnish media, in large part because the goaltender was a major reason why Pelicans eliminated none other than Karpat in the semifinals. He is currently training with AHL Coachella Valley and impressing the coaching staff there.

“I was lucky enough to go over and spend a week with him about two weeks after he joined Pelicans,” said Allen, the Kraken’s 2021-22 goalie coach who regularly works (remotely and in person when feasible) with other goalie prospects, including 2021 sixth-rounder Semyon Vyazovoy and 2023 sixth-rounder Visa Vedenpaa. “I got the sense [Kokko] really liked his situation with Pelicans, a team that really wanted him. It helped him be himself and gain that confidence he has. He told me his goal was to be the starting goalie by the playoffs, to show 'you can rely on me as a 20-year-old at the Liiga level.’ He accomplished it and had a great run.”

Prospecting for Goalies That Fit

While Hovi was all-in on the Vedenpaa choice last summer in his role scouring Finland-based rosters, Allen is the go-to scout for identifying goalie prospects. Three seasons in the franchise’s NHL presence, Allen said he still values “goalie sense” as a primary must-have for any goalie drafted or signed as an undrafted free agent (such as Swedish-born former University of Maine goaltender Victor Ostman joining Coachella Valley after he completed his NCAA career). But there’s more specificity to Allen’s hunt for goalies who might not play for the Kraken for several years but nonetheless represent a future need to become a perennial postseason contender.

“A big part of it now is to come up with goalies we feel will fit the Kraken organization best, not just the best goalies,” said Allen, whose background includes an AHL and ECHL playing career and four seasons as goalie coach with the Buffalo Sabres. “The staples are always there – the skating ability, poise under pressure, your athleticism, hockey sense which we call goalie sense as well. For me, it’s about seeing all the tools a goalie has and what we want as a player on and off the ice.”

Deep Diving on ‘Goalie Sense’

Allen was happy to expand on goalie sense: " For me, it's not just about stopping pucks. It's anticipating, knowing where the threat is and being able to play the position with an innate read. A young goalie reading the play is not always easy to see in person, but sometimes it really stands out.”

Another part of goalie sense, said Allen, is whether the prospect has timeliness in his game: “Certain goalies make bigger saves at the more important times in games. Are they reading the team’s situation, and how do they handle it? The puck handling aspect is another part of it [Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, with whom Allen worked in 2021-22, is Exhibit A], being able to see a play and execute it by moving the puck.”

Sizing Up the Sixth-Rounders

All three Kraken goalie draft choices prospered as seasons unfolded in 2023-24. The aforementioned Vyazovoy, a sixth-rounder part of the Kraken’s inaugural draft class in 2021, starred for Toros Neftekamsk during the regular season in Russia’s second-tier pro league, posting a 20-13-4 record with a .929 save percentage. The 21-year-old then followed up with a .912 save percentage in five playoffs that included several close losses.

"His X factor when we drafted him in 2021 was speed,” said Allen about Vyazovoy. “He’s really, really powerful. Even as an 18-year you could see a dynamic speed to his game around the net. We almost had to rein him in a bit [goalies call it becoming “quiet”]. Each of the last three seasons, he's gotten a little more under control. But for me, you don't teach that innate, dynamic speed [to be ready for the next shot, a quick release, a late pass]. That’s why we like him so much.”

Vedenpaa, picked in the sixth round last summer, is from the same Karpat club that moved the aforementioned Kokko to Pelicans. Like Kokko, Vedenpaa was loaned (to Hermes Kokkola of Mestis, Finland’s second-tier league) and set a goal to be a starter in net for his new team during the playoffs. Mission accomplished: Vedenpaa appeared in 13 playoff games, putting up a strong .915 save percentage and 2.81 goals-against average to help push his club into later rounds of the playoffs.

Let’s finish the goalie scout reports where we started on this goalie quest, with Hovi talking about another Finnish goalie prospect. Vedenpaa and Kokko share a Finnish club, Kraken status and that same hometown of Oulu.

“He’s a different-style goalie than Kokko,” said Hovi about the 19-year-old Vedenpaa. “He’s a really hard worker who does everything precisely. I see a guy that is developing every year, he's taking the next step. Not the huge steps in one year like Koko is now taking, but steps in the right direction every year. There's nothing to hold him back to becoming a really good goalie. He’s good now, but in four years, he's gonna be four times better. I see a great goalie a little bit later [to be ready for the NHL], but there's going to be a really good goalie in the future who is solid and precise in the net.”

Allen agrees: “What was big for us with Visa is his great reaction speed and good size and good feet. His physical tools were exciting to us in his draft year. I really like his demeanor. He’s a calm goalie who’s not going to chase all over the place ... He earned his minutes in Mestis and took it upon himself to be the playoffs starter. He took very good steps in this development year.”

Finding More of the Future This June

Hockey operations staffers have long held that forwards can move the fastest up the player development depth charts to land spots on NHL rosters. Defensemen typically take two to four seasons, while goaltenders are more likely five years or more removed from playing meaningful minutes in the NHL. For Allen, surmising when the annual goalie run will occur in any one draft (“it’s different every year”) and when to draft a goalie is not anywhere near a final step.

“Wherever you're drafting goalies, the next question is where are they playing next season?” said Allen. “Do we feel that's a good development situation for the goalie [mentions games played]? Five years from now, can we see a path the goalie having NHL-translatable tools? The ultimate question is 'is the prospect going to be an NHL goalie?'”

It sounds difficult, projecting a teenager as ready in his mid-20s to steal Stanley Cup Playoffs games. Allen has a firm answer: “For me, everybody has to have something for me that stands out. It's different for every goalie, but something has to drive our interest. We want to be excited when we think about that goaltender playing for the Kraken, that’s he’s going to play in Seattle.”