Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Goalie stats are a tricky thing. The goalie with the best GAA and SV% in a league isn't necessarily the best goalie. GAA is more of a team defensive stat. SV% can be skewed in either direction by the team allowing a lot of low % shots (which would give the goalie a high SV%) or by the team not allowing a lot of shots but allowing a lot of odd man breaks and high quality chances (which would lower the goalies SV%). IMO there is no pure goalie stat that tells us how good a goalie is. Goalie stats are hugely dependant on team defensive play.
Given how questionable goalie stats are combined with the fact that most of us have not seen any sizeable amount of Ramo's games and we really can't judge how quality of a prospect is. One of the posters is deferring to the Flames management and scouts opinion of Ramo and frankly that is about all we have to go on.
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Would anyone pick Mike Smith over Pekka Rinne because Smith had better stats last year? And there's a reason why NHL don't just sign the European stats leaders every year. A hockey fan in NA will never hear about the vast majority of those players, because they don't have the qualities to be in the NHL. It's no different than AHL veterans who have great seasons but who no one believes can take that to the next level.
So it's a matter of scouting in the sense of evaluating whether a player can make the next step. Everyone knows the players. It's not about finding out that they exist, it's about judging how they'll do at the highest level. Some players flourish, some struggle.
And it's not controversial that Rämö has been among the top goalies for years there. I'm sure opinions differ as to how he might do in the NHL. I'd be careful about getting excited about any European veteran, but fan rankings and honorary titles are meaningless in determining how he'll do.