Recently, the Calgary Flames announced that on March 2, 2024, the organization would hold a ceremony and retire franchise win leader Miikka Kiprusoff‘s number. Ultimately, the Finnish-born netminder will become just the fourth member with a retired jersey, joining Jarome Iginla, Lanny McDonald, and Mike Vernon.
Related: Calgary Flames Retired Numbers
Although Kiprusoff has not played since the end of the 2012-13 season, fans still wear his jersey at home games. Whether it is the Flaming “C” or iconic “Blasty” jersey, many remember his split saves and flexibility when stopping pucks. Despite not winning a championship in Calgary, he became the team’s best statistical goalie, providing fans with endless memories that everyone will get to relive one more time in March.
As everyone prepares for the jersey retirement ceremony, here’s a look at seven fascinating statistics from his 12-year NHL career.
1. Gave Up 1,500 Goals in the NHL
Kiprusoff played in 623 games with the San Jose Sharks and Flames franchises, surrendering exactly 1,500 goals over 12 seasons. Although he finished his career with a 2.49 goals-against average (GAA), he only allowed over 200 goals in a single season once, finishing with 209 in 2008-09.
Statistically, he gave up 26 first NHL goals, with players like Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner, Lars Eller, and Joel Lundqvist all beating him for their first tallies. Meanwhile, a handful of skaters scored milestone goals against the Finnish netminder, including Mike Richards (100), David Backes (100), David Legwand (200), Martin Havlát (200), Sidney Crosby (200), Markus Näslund (300), Jason Arnott (300), and Mats Sundin (500).
Additionally, Kiprusoff gave up six goals to Alex Ovechkin, who is just 72 goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark of 894. Statistically, the Washington Capitals captain scored goals #153, #154, #265, #275, #276, and #318 against him. Meanwhile, Gretzky never had a chance to play against Kiprusoff, who debuted a season after The Great One retired in 1999.
2. The Vancouver Canucks Were His Kryptonite
At first glance, fans would expect that Kiprusoff played the most games against the Flames’ provincial rivals, the Edmonton Oilers. However, he played more games against the Vancouver Canucks (54) than any other club. Moreover, he gave up 164 goals to the team, his worse numbers against any opponent.
Unsurprisingly, the player with the most goals scored on Kiprusoff is Daniel Sedin, with 24. Statistically, he had a 22-24-7 record against the Canucks, finishing with a career-low .887 save percentage (SV%), one of only four teams with numbers below .900 SV%.
Considering he gave up 100 or more goals to just four teams: Colorado Avalanche (123), Edmonton Oilers (109), and Minnesota Wild (101), the numbers indicate that Kiprusoff struggled against the Canucks. However, despite less than stellar performances against Vancouver, he won the only playoff matchup between the two clubs during his career, with a thrilling 3-2 win in Game 7 of the first round of the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
3. Statistically a Top 5 Finnish Goalie of All-Time
When hockey fans think about who the greatest Finnish goalie of all time is, today’s fans may say Tuukka Rask or Pekka Rinne. However, the country has produced four 300-game winners, with Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen joining the group of Rask and Rinne.
Heading into the 2023-24 season, Kiprusoff ranks second or third in the most significant goalie categories, like games played, wins, losses, saves, ice time, and shutouts. Moreover, he ranks amongst the top ten in SV%, GAA, overtime losses, and assists. Interestingly, he ranks second in penalty minutes with 47, trailing only Rinne, who retired with 56 minutes.
4. Only 50+ Save Game Came in the Stanley Cup Playoffs
During the first three seasons of his career, 2000-2003, Kiprusoff did not have a game in which he made 40 saves. However, he collected at least one 40-plus save game over the next nine seasons, finishing with 12 such games in his career during the regular season.
Ultimately, his busiest season occurred in 2011-12 when he had four 40-plus save games with a season-high 43 on Dec. 13, 2011, coming just one stop away from a personal best of 44 recorded on Dec. 11, 2009. Even though he never recorded a game with over 50 saves during the regular season, his best performance came in a playoff game against the Detroit Red Wings.
Related: One for the Ages: Miikka Kiprusoff’s 2005-06 Season
Unfortunately, in an elimination game in the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Kiprusoff turned away 53 shots but surrendered two goals, which ended the Flames’ season in double overtime when Johan Franzén scored at 4:23. Despite his distinguished career, it was the only time he recorded over 50 saves in a game.
5. The Best Goalie in Flames’ History
After spending most of his career backstopping the Flames to a Stanley Cup and numerous playoff experiences, Vernon held the title of the franchise’s best netminder. However, after a trade with the Sharks brought a relatively unproven goalie (Kiprusoff) to Calgary, no one could’ve expected he would rewrite the team’s record book.
At his retirement, Vernon had his name on every goalie record. Still, after Kiprusoff retired in 2013, the only categories Vernon had left were goals against, assists, and penalty minutes. As we look back at Kiprusoff’s statistics a decade after his last game, he remains the only netminder in team history to win over 300 games, finishing with 308.
Besides the wins, Kiprusoff’s name remains at the top of several categories, including games played, losses, overtime losses, saves, GAA, SV%, ice time, and shutouts. Ultimately, with so many out-of-reach numbers for current netminders to chase, it would take Jacob Markstrom almost a decade to catch him. At the same time, prospect Dustin Wolf would need to spend at least 15 years in Calgary to come close to matching Kiprusoff’s totals based on workloads in today’s NHL format.
6. Professional Hockey is a Family Affair
Kiprusoff’s older brother Marko played professional hockey from 1990 to 2014, having a cup of coffee in the NHL with 51 games. Besides briefly skating with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders, Marko was a fixture for over a decade with TPS in Finland’s professional league, Liiga.
Surprisingly, he was a multi-time Liiga champion (1993, 1995, 1999, 2000) and won four medals at the World Championship (three silver and one gold). The Kiprusoff brothers won two Liiga championships in 1995 and 1999 while sharing a World Championship silver medal in 2001.
Upon retirement, Miikka became the owner of TPS and hired Marko as a coach briefly during the 2014-15 season. Although Miikka still owns the club, his brother has since become the assistant coach for PKS in II-divisioona.
7. Arguably the Best Drafted Goalie in 1995
During the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, teams selected 27 netminders, with 13 eventually playing a game in the league. Interestingly, the draft’s first goalie selection, Jean-Sébastien Giguère, is the only member of his class to win the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, Kiprusoff was the 12th goalie selected, 116th overall, behind names like Martin Biron, Brian Boucher, Marc Denis, and Vesa Toskala.
Despite being one of the later picks for his position, Kiprusoff became his draft class’ best statistical goalie. Ultimately, he was the only back stopper to dress in over 600 games and the only one to collect 300 wins, edging out Giguère in both categories. Even though he didn’t win a Stanley Cup or Conn Smythe Trophy, honors earned by Giguère, Kiprusoff won the Vezina Trophy and William M. Jennings Trophy in 2005-06.
Further Perspective
Although Kiprusoff has slid down a few spots on the all-time wins list since retiring, he remains the 31st winningest netminder in NHL history. Additionally, he remains the best statistical goalie in Flames’ history, earning his place in the rafters at the Scotiabank Saddledome next to other franchise icons like Iginla, McDonald, and Vernon.
As mentioned, Kiprusoff collected many victories and other statistics that will take a long time for someone to come along and overtake. Even though his No. 34 is getting retired a decade after his last game, it is an honor long overdue since the Finnish netminder is one of the most prolific players to ever play for the franchise.
