2018 NHL Draft, Round 6: Blue Jackets select goalie Veini Vehvilainen
The next great Finnish netminder?
With the 173rd pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, the Columbus Blue Jackets selected Veini Vehvilainen, goaltender from Karpat of Liiga, the top Finnish league.
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 174 lbs
Catches: Left
Vehvilainen is an “overager” as he is already 21 years old. He has gone undrafted previously. When doing my research, I came across this draft preview by our colleagues at Stanley Cup of Chowder... from two years ago. He is undersized, which bucks the recent trend in the NHL. That’s a likely reason why he has been passed over for so long.
In his most recent season, he had a 1.89 GAA and .925 SV% in 35 games and in the playoffs he delivered a 1.57 GAA and .933 SV% in 17 games.
I wonder if he is someone who could make the move to North America sooner rather than later. This is a very intriguing addition to the Jacket organization’s goalie pipeline.