ST. PAUL, Minn. — Finland has become a popular breeding ground for goalies, and the Bruins have tapped into it with success before in developing current backup Tuukka Rask.
They didn't add a Finnish goalie in Saturday's second day of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, but they did pick a netminder who has been honing his game in Finland. Boston used its sixth and final pick to take Lars Volden at No. 181, the last selection of the sixth round.
"Our European scout Jukka [Holtari] had seen him a lot, as had some of our other scouts," Bruins assistant general manager Jim Benning said. "We got good reports from his goalie coach on him. He's a big boy. We like if we can to draft a goalie every year to add depth in that position in the organization, and at that point in the draft it made sense to draft him."
Volden is from Oslo, Norway, but played in Finland for the Blues Junior club, posting a 2.76 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage in 24 games. He was ranked fifth among European goalies by NHL Central Scouting.
"He's the typical butterfly style goalie that you see come out of Finland," Benning said. "He's big. He covers the net, the upper part of the net and the butterfly. We'll keep monitoring him. It takes goalies a long time to develop. There's been a lot of good goalies come out of Finland, so we're excited to get him in the sixth round."
