2024 Edmonton Oilers prospects
Cult of Hockey ranking #14 Goalie Eemil Vinni
The various reports about the Edmonton Oilers late second round draft pick in the 2024 draft are in and if nothing else is certain one thing is: that when Eemil Vinni is in the net you can expect excitement.
Lightning strikes across the net on spectacular saves. Misplayed pucks. Charging out of the net to challenge shooters. Some iffy goals against.
The son of goaltending coach Teemu Vinni, Eemil has been a top junior goalie in Finland for a few years now. He may one day become a top pro but that’s always a tricky bet when projecting any player drafted in Vinni’s range (64th overall) of the annual teen talent grab, as we can see from Edmonton’s mixed record of drafting players 31st to 85th overall.
There’s been no shortage of unsuccessful picks such as Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers in 2002, Andrew Verner in 1991, Patrick Dovigi in 1997, Daryl Reaugh in 1984, Samu Perhonen in 2011, Adam Hauser in 1999, and Ilya Konovalov in 2019. That leaves one pick in this range where the jury is still out, Olivier Rodrigue in 2018, and one pick that is turning out nicely, Stuart Skinner in 2017.
And now the Oilers have drafted Vinni, with Rick Pracey, Edmonton’s head of amateur scouting, saying of the player on Oilers Now: “The things that we liked about Vinni are his athleticism. He’s a quick twitch type. He’s aggressive. He’s got a big personality. He likes to play pucks. Sometimes we have to watch a little bit of over-movement. In terms of development, you know, holding the play within his posts. But he’s big. He’s athletic. He’s quick. He reads the play well. He’s got big compete.. I just think he’s got some fire in him.”
The kid has even been in a goalie fight.
I’ve not seen the young goalie play but based on Pracey’s comments and other assessments, I’m starting to get an image of a Mike Smith kind of goalie here. In other words, a fascinating goalie who will have plenty of great moments and a few rancid ones.
As for the draft reports, here’s a bit of flavour from the public record:
Jason Bukala of Sportsnet: “Vinni has good size, great feet, moves very well laterally and controls his rebounds. He’s also not shy about jumping out of his crease to play the puck and outlet up ice.”
Scott Wheeler of The Athletic: “I’ve always found him a little leaky.”
Steven Ellis of The Daily Faceoff: “He’s arguably been Finland’s best goaltender in the U-20 national team competition this year. At 6-foot-2, he has decent size and, fortunately, he isn’t overcommitting on shots as much as he was a year ago.”
Elite Prospects: “Vinni is possibly the goaltender with the highest ceiling of this year’s draft class. He combines his excellent skill set with a unique playing style that catches a lot of shooters by surprise.”
Chris Peters of Flo Hockey: “Over the last few years, Vinni has showed flashes of a higher end ability as a goalie.”
Corey Pronman of The Athletic: “He makes a lot of difficult saves moving across the crease and when he challenges shooters he can explode out of the net. Vinni’s game can be quite busy in net though with a lot of extra movement and he doesn’t always track the puck well.”
Colin Hunter of Dobber Prospects: “Great upside with strong skating, aggressiveness, and athleticism, but needs to find some consistency in technique and tracking.”
NHL Central Scouting: “Good lateral movements in the butterfly position. Effective overall net coverage with good angle and positional play. Patient and quick on breakaways, has a quick glove hand. Fine overall instincts and reads the game well.”
Expectations for 2024-25: Earn a job as the No. 1 goalie on whatever team he’s playing for, be it Team Finland at the World Junior tournament or his pro league in Finland, and make enough big saves to work his way into the Top 10 on our Cult of Hockey rankings next summer.
Cult of Hockey Prospect Series
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