Pekka Rinne had a Hall of Fame case, despite underwhelming resume

The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2026 on Monday, headlined by former Boston Bruins‘ captain Patrice Bergeron and Montreal Canadiens‘ legend Carey Price.

Another goaltender in this year’s class was Nashville Predators‘ star Pekka Rinne, a four-time Vezina Trophy finalist who won the award in 2018 and helped lead the Preds to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017.

Paul Pidutti: Hockey Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 (mostly) gets it right

While Rinne finished his career with a .917 save percentage, 14th on the NHL’s all-time list, some are wondering if he legitimately qualifies among the game’s greatest. The Finnish netminder never won a Stanley Cup, and according to Daily Faceoff’s Paul Pidutti, he ranked 75th out of 90 goalies who played at least 200 games in goals saved above expected.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Rinne’s career and where he places among the NHL’s best goaltenders.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Your boy Pekka Rinne, a guy you played with in Nashville, you have a close and personal relationship. I’ll look at the resume and go, “Ehhhhhh.” But what can you tell me about Pekka Rinne? We don’t need to be doom and gloom, because your boy is a Hall of Famer.

Carter Hutton: It’s pretty amazing, and I think back to my career where I was floating in the breeze, I finally got a chance in Nashville to be Rinne’s backup, knowing I was just going to make sure his coffee was warm between periods. He was a guy who took me under his wing.

For me, I’m biased in the sense that you think about him at that point in his career, he was one of the best goalies on the planet, he had the contract, he had everything. You saw the way he took care of himself and prepared and worked, and for me, the fact he played in … the same organization throughout his career, he put Nashville on the map. For him and Shea Weber, two Predators, it’s pretty awesome to see.

Playing more than 500 games and having a career .917 save percentage is nothing to shake your head at. It was quite a run for him in Nashville.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…