Is this finally the goaltender the Edmonton Oilers have long been looking for?

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The Top 20 countdown of our 2025 Cult of Hockey Prospect Series begins today. These are the twenty young men in the system right now who are closest to making an impact with the big club.

A friendly reminder: Players only fall off the list once they:

-Make the NHL
-Get dealt to a different organization
-Age out, or…
-Drop off the map.

With that, lets get going…

2025 Cult of Hockey Edmonton Oilers Top Prospect Rankings

#20 – Eemil Vinni – G

(Voters: David Staples, Kurt Leavins, Jim Matheson, Ira Cooper).

Few things are quite as divisive in Oil Country as the state of the Edmonton Oilers goaltending.

And that debate gets no less heated when we start to delve into the young goalies advancing through the system. With the departure of Olivier Rodrigue from the organization, only two tenders remain in the Top 20 Prospects. And one of them, Eemil Vinni, sits squarely at #20.

Vinni is nineteen, turning 20 in December. The Finnish puck stopper was selected by the Oilers in Round Two, sixty-four overall in the 2024 draft. At the time, it was thought that perhaps the Oilers jumped the gun on him just a shade. TSN’s Bob McKenzie had Vinnie ranked at 74. Craig Button had him at 93. In fact, one of the few who had him slated higher than where the Oilers picked him was Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News (41). NHL Central Scouting did have him listed as the top EU goalie available.

A left shot/left glove, Eemil Vinni stands slightly above average among today’s netminders at 6’2+. And his size is certainly a plus. But what type of goalie is he? We first glance at this entry from Elite Prospects:

“A well-rounded goaltender who has an exciting approach to the game which plays into his strengths. The 6-foot-2 netminder is not afraid to attack shooters and force their hand – leading to a lot of mistakes by opponents. Very active and assertive in the crease, but not overly aggressive. He controls pucks with his hands extremely well, and his elite edgework completes the package.

And to Dobber Prospects, on how he is progressing thus far:

– “Prior to the 2024-25 season, Vinni underwent back surgery which limited him to only nine regular season games across three teams in Finland. Encouraging sign to see him playing again before season’s end and improve his save percentage as well. Vinni had a .910 SV% over seven games for SM-sarja of the Finnish U20 league. Look for him to start in Mestis in 2025-26 and make a push for playing time in Liiga before the season is over”.

Finally, from Jason Bukala of Sportsnet:

-“Vinni has good size, great feet, moves very well laterally and controls his rebounds”.

In terms of statistics, the biggest sample you will find on Eemil Vinni is from 2023-24 and with Jokipojat Joensuu of the Mestis League. In 37 games he was 19-9-10, with a 2.72 GAA and a .891 SV%. That is “O.K.” In the league playoffs that same year he was 3-4-0, 3.13 GAA and .867 SV%. That is not as O.K. Much smaller sample yet notable: For the Finnish 2023-24 U20 club in 5 games he was 5-0-0, with a 1.39 GAA and a .942 SV%. That is a bit more encouraging.

Other pluses:

-He moves the puck very well for young man. His ability to make a short pass may help relieve the pressure from his D-men. And he has the ability to make a sharp rim around the boards under the heat of a heavy forecheck.

-He has good hockey DNA. His father Teemu Vinni, who for a number of years now has been a goaltending coach of note in Finland. One hopes the apple does
not fall too far from the tree.

Where he needs work:

-The general consensus from the scouting community is that Vinni mostly needs to improve his tracking of the puck. He can be guilty of surrendering goals on pucks that should be stopped because he did not pick up the disk in time to make the adjustment positionally. That failing seemed to show up the most in pro action where traffic in front and the ability to tip pucks is at a much higher level. The silver lining: That is a skill that can be taught.

-Occasionally, Vinni can also lose his post. That issue is likely a product of too much movement in the crease. It is a development point we should expect considerable time spent on in the years to come.

General observations:

-Vinni is a Rick Pracey pick. Being an early selection of the new Head of Amateur Scouting, it is reasonable to expect Vinni to get a long look as he is “one of their guys”, as the saying goes. From Pracey: “He’s big. He’s athletic. He’s quick. He reads the play well. He’s got big compete”.

-He also has some bite in him. He is on the fiery side and has even been in a goalie fight! He may not turn out to be Mike Smith, but there does seem to be some subtle similarities between the two tenders.

-The back surgery and loss of most of a season in terms of development is hardly ideal. One hopes that he is back to 100% health and able to pick up where he left off. Alas, that is not always the case.

Projection:

Long-term, 50/50 that Vinni ends up as an NHL goaltender. In the shorter term, the organization hopes he can graduate to being a full-time netminder in the Finnish Elite League by year’s end.

From there, it would then be reasonable that Vinni would be in AHL Bakersfield by 2026-27. Hard to say from there. As they say, “goalies are voo-doo.”

But Eemil Vinni does seem to be a legitimate prospect worth watching.

Next up…prospect #19 from The Cult of Hockey’s David Staples.

Now on Bluesky @kurtleavins.bsky.social. Also, find me on Threads @kleavins, Twitter @KurtLeavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and Mastodon at KurtLeavins@mstdn.social.

This article is not AI generated.

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Bruce McCurdy, 1955-2025.

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