In what is becoming a consistent trend, the Ottawa Senators 3rd round selection in the 2020 draft was unconventional. Not many scouts had even heard of Merilänen before, so there wasn’t much analysis given on him when he was selected. Since then though, he’s quietly been one of Ottawa’s best performing prospects.
Meriläinen played in 22 games for the U20 Kärpät team in Finland, and he posted a whopping .934 SV%. For reference, the next best goalie in the league (with at least 10 GP) had a .923 SV%. 32 goalies fit that criteria and the median SV% was just .