On the surface, Kari Lehtonen is a strange player for us to rank.  The Finnish Goalie has 310 Wins, but never finished higher than eighth in Vezina voting.  He has over 110 Goalie Point Shares, and is in the top 50 all-time in that category, but has only been in the playoffs three times.

So, what do we have?

Lehtonen was the second overall pick in 2002, taken by the Atlanta Thrashers, who were not good and never good, and had the most apathetic fan base in the NHL. After playing mostly in the AHL, he became their main Goalie in 2007, but again, Atlanta was horrible, and most of the success that the Thrashers had come from Lehtonen.

The Thrashers traded Lehtonen to the Dallas Stars, but they were in a down period, and he did not have much help up front.  He logged more minutes wearing the Dallas green, and in the 2013-14 campaign, Lehtonen led all netminders in Games (65) and Minutes Played (3.804).  Coincidentally, this was the year when he had his only Vezina finish (eighth).  He retired after the 2017-18 Season, and because of Dallas's lack of success during that time, he is not remembered as much as he should be.

Lehtonen also represented Finland multiple times, culminating in a Bronze Medal at the 2014 Olympics.                           

From Savonlinna, Finland, Tuukka Rask was drafted in the First Round (21^st Overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he never played there as he was traded to Boston for fellow Goalie Andrew Raycroft.  It was a deal that historically would favor the Bruins, the team in which Rask played his entire career.

Rask was first called up in 2007 but was not the regular backup until the 2009-10 Season when he led the NHL in Save Percentage and Goals Against Average.  Rask would finally take over from Tim Thomas as the Bruins' lead Goalie, bringing the Bruins back to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2013.  They lost to Chicago, but Task established himself as one of the best in the game.  The season after, he won the coveted Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top Goalie.

Rask had his ups and downs afterward, dealing with injuries, but again led the Bruins to another Cup Final in 2019, the same season he was named a Second Team All-Star.  Boston again lost, this time to St. Louis, who captured their first Title.

Rask had an upper-body injury that kept him on the sideline going into this season, but he came back to rejoin the Bruins, appearing in four games as Linus Ullmark’s backup. He cited that he was not at the level he needed to be.

Internationally, Rask represented Finland multiple times, with his greatest success coming in the 2014 Olympics, where he backstopped his nation to a Bronze Medal.

Rask leaves the games with a record of 306-163-66 with a 2.28 GAA.

When you are taken 256^th Overall in the NHL Amateur Draft, just making it to the largest North American hockey league is hard enough.  Putting that in perspective, what Finnish Goalie Pekka Rinne accomplished was miraculous.

Drafted in 2004, Rinne played a combined three NHL Games in his first three years in the United States, but he was clearly a netminder on the rise, and he became Nashville’s top Goalie in 208, a role he held for well over a decade.

Rinne was named a Second Team All-Star in 2010-11, finishing second for the Vezina, and he was third the following year, where he led the NHL in Wins (43).  As Nashville improved around him, Rinne was able to lead the Predators to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017.  Nashville did not win the Cup, but the Predators were contenders due to his efforts.

In the following year, Rinne, who was twice second for the Vezina, would win that elusive award on the strength of his 42-13-4 Record and 2.31 GAA.  Rinne never had another season like that again, and he played three more years before retiring with a 368-212-75 lifetime record with a 2.43 GAA.

From Finland, Center Mikko Koivu played 16 years in the NHL, all but seven games with the Minnesota Wild.

Over his career, Koivu scored 711 Points (709 in Minnesota), and had three years (2008-09 to 2010-11) where he had at least 62 Points.  A solid playmaker, Koivu was equally adept at the defensive side of the rink.  Koivu enjoyed votes for the Frank J. Selke Award ten times, with four of them cracking the top ten in balloting.  Koivu might not have been an All-Star, but his contributions to the Wild are undeniable.

As we said with Jussi Jokinen, Koivu is unlikely to get into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he could be a fringe candidate for the IIHF.  Koivu played in 77 Senior Games for Finland, winning medals at the Olympics, World Cup of Hockey, and World Hockey Championships.

With a solid career in the National Hockey League, Finnish Defenseman Sami Salo had a solid though massively injury-riddled career.  Salo scored 339 career Points with his best years coming as one of the anchors of a good Vancouver Canucks defensive corps.  Salo, who was tagged as injury prone (he allegedly had 40 injuries over his career) would still play 15 seasons in the NHL and more notably was a four time Olympian for the Finnish team where he won a Silver Medal and two Bronzes.

Seeing limited action with the San Jose Sharks, Miikka Kiprusoff was traded to the Calgary Flames where he would be a sensation for the team leading the NHL in Save Percentage in Goals Against Average finishing second in the Vezina in the 2003/04.  The NHL Lockout prevented him from repeating that great season but in 2005/06 he would exceed his previous NHL season with a First Team All-Star, William M. Jennings Award and Vezina Trophy.  He was also third in Hart Trophy balloting that year.  Kiprusoff would finish in the top ten in Vezina Trophy voting five of the next seven years he was in the National Hockey League all of which were with the Calgary Flames.  Kiprusoff retired with 319 Wins.

In a 15-year NHL career, Jyrki Lumme enjoyed considerable success on the blueline.  Lumme, who played nine of his seasons with the Vancouver Canucks was often regarded as the team’s top defenceman and he would have four 40 Point seasons with the team.  Lumme was never an All-Star, though he certainly could have been considered for one or two.

Jere Lehtinen was easily one of the unsung heroes of the Dallas Stars' run to the Stanley Cup, but considering he played all 14 of his seasons in Texas, the team clearly knew what they had.

While the term of having a lot of heart is applied to athletes a lot, almost to the point of being a cliché, you can’t say that about Saku Koivu.

From Finland, Olli Jokinen had a long and healthy career in the National Hockey League, where he played over 1,200 Games in the most important professional league in Hockey.  The Finnish star would have three straight seasons with the Florida Panthers, where he scored 70 or more Points, and he would finish with an even 750 Points over his professional career.  Jokinen represented Finland internationally many times, helping his country win three medals at the Olympics.

One of the more successful Finnish players in professional hockey history, Kimmo Timonen, is one of the few players in the National Hockey League to accrue over 1,100 Games.  A Stay-at-home blueliner, Timonen represented Finland internationally multiple times, which resulted in four Olympic medals.  Timonen is also a Stanley Cup Champion, a title he achieved in his final pro game with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015.  Not a bad way to finish a professional hockey career.

Teppo Numminen did not receive a lot of press during his NHL career, as he spent the majority of his time with the Winnipeg Jets, who would later become the Phoenix Coyotes.  Having said that, Numminen is one of the few players to have played twenty seasons in the National Hockey League and at the time of his retirement his 1,327 was the most played (since broken) by a European player, though sadly for Numminen, he still holds the record for the most games played without wining a Stanley Cup.