Nikita Tolopilo

Last Season

Twenty-one appearances, 6-11-2, a 3.61 goals-against average and a .8814 save percentage, no shutouts. His career figure across 23 games is .8816.

Over his last ten appearances, .855 on 241 shots.

The Physical Game

Six foot six and 229 pounds, and among the largest goaltenders in the league. He fills the net standing and the shot from distance has nowhere obvious to go.

The problems are the ones every goaltender this size has and he has them badly: he is slow getting down and slower getting back, and he is beaten on the second chance far more often than the first.

The Mental Game

Undrafted out of Belarus, signed out of the Swedish league, and given twenty-one NHL games at 26 because the club had nobody else healthy.

The Intangibles

A .855 across the last ten appearances is among the four worst finishing runs of any goaltender in this book.

Vancouver used three goaltenders for twenty or more games and none of them reached .895. The club conceded 210 goals at five-on-five, the most in the league, against an expected 193.9 — sixteen worse than the chances faced.

He is 26 and this is a third goaltender’s page. There is no version of the coming season in which twenty-one more appearances at .8814 is an acceptable outcome for this club.