As the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs progress, the NHL Draft Blog will examine how several prominent performers were first found by their respective teams. Friday we start with the Vezina Trophy-nominated goaltender for the Nashville Predators, Pekka Rinne.

The postseason is full of heroes who were afterthoughts in their draft years, but no few have emerged from farther off the pace than Nashville goaltender, Pekka Rinne.

There's no reason to think that this is an aberration -- really, in the playoffs he's only picked up from where he left off in the regular season (.930 save percentage, 2.12 GAA). And there's no reason to think he's a one-season wonder along the lines of Jim Carey since he's been doing it for three seasons and counting now.

Paul Fenton, Nashville's assistant general manager, says the Preds' Helsinki-based scout Janne Kekalainen "deserves the majority of credit" for finding a potential franchise goaltender that NHL scouts didn't just overlook in his draft year but in the three subsequent drafts -- and then passed over him until the seventh round of a fourth. Rinne, a late '82 birthday, was first eligible for the 2001 draft, and under the previous CBA teams could put in draft claims on unsigned undrafted over-age Euros players. That practice is no longer in play, but it certainly paid off for the Predators.

"Janne had seen him a couple of times and he caught Janne's eye from an athletic standpoint and with his size," Fenton says. "Pekka was just a back-up to Niklas Backstrom at that point and so there wouldn't have been many chances to see him."

Kekalainen doesn't claim to have struck gold all by himself.

"Pekka's agent hinted to me about him, he told me to take a look at him," he says. "What made me curious was that he mentioned how raw he had been and was just starting to get muscles on his bones and so become more mobile. I remembered Pekka from Junior league, he was a big guy who was just okay in my mind."

An obscure game provided an ah-ha moment for Kekalainen. "I was impressed right away," he says. "You could easily tell he was mobile, but the most impressive thing was the energy, drive, sportsmanship oozing out of him. There had been a goalie taken the previous draft in the third round and I remember thinking, 'If he was taken in the third, I have no problem taking (Rinne) in the second.'"

Kekalainen wrote a glowing report on the goaltender and filed it with the Predators. He spoke to Fenton about him and sent video of Rinne's games to Nashville. It wasn't a sure sell though. When Kekalainen took Nashville's Swedish scout Lucas Bergman to one of Rinne's games the goalie was pulled after 40 minutes, down 5-0. Kekalainen felt like he needed some back-up inside the room and feared that Bergman would have written off Rinne based on one rough outing. Bergman didn't.

Fenton has made his philosophy the organization's. "I started scout for Jack Ferreira and he used to say that when you saw a prospect, you looked for him to do one thing special or a lot of good things," Fenton says. "That's our approach -- a prospect has to do at least one thing that's exceptional. You can't go with a prospect who does everything average."

The Predators have an organizational philosophy, one that stems from Jack Ferrero, that every prospect must be exceptional in at least one way. For Kekalainen one thing stood out on the ice, while another was evident off the ice. "His goalie coach's comments," Kekalainen says. "When he started talking about Pekka's work ethic and practice habits, it was very clear that there was something special about him. Some coaches say, 'Yeah, he is ok,' or, 'He is not bad,' which usually means average. Ari Hilli (goalie coach) absolutely raved about the way he practiced. The size combined with extreme work ethic and drive is a combination that is very attractive for me."

But convincing the rest of the Predators' war room of Rinne's potential was another matter. At that time Kekalainen was just a part timer for the Predators and his opinion by itself didn't carry the weight a veteran scout's would have. "Getting my voice heard was still not so easy," Kekalainen said. "I presented my case at the meetings and we had him somewhere low at the list. That draft, we had some extra picks late. There started to be a shortage of players towards the end of the draft. One of the scouts went through the table asking around if there was a guy we had a passion for. My gut feeling was still there so I said, 'Take that Finnish goalie.'"

It was a pick that didn't offer immediate returns but a huge long-term payoff. The Preds brought Rinne over to play for their AHL affiliate in Milwaukee and didn't rush him. There they got an even clearer read on his physical potential and character. "He's a contortionist and he doesn't give up on any play," Fenton says. "What we learned about him in Milwaukee basically confirmed Kekalainen's report and our interview with Pekka. He's not a real difficult personality. He's one of the most likable and positive and genuine people you'll meet. You wish that he does really well."

To date, he has and so did the Nashville Predators with the last pick in the eighth round of the 2004 draft. Snatching up a Vezina-worthy goaltender at that spot is, uh, rare. Twenty-eight goaltenders were selected ahead of Rinne that draft, including the goalie with the Japanese national junior team. Through all his years of draft eligibility, Rinne had been passed over more than 1,129 times before the Predators' went with Kekalainen's gut instinct.

A scouting director for another team said: "Our Finnish scout had seen him a dozen times. After Rinne was selected he told us Rinne had no hope."

Seven years later, as the Predators cling to their playoff hopes entering Game 5, they do so in large part because of Pekka Rinne.