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Confirmed with Link: Canucks Re-Sign G Kevin Lankinen 5y/4.5AAV

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What an awkward contract for the team.

* It rules out getting a high end goalie because that's too much combined cap. Replacement is going to have to come from within or be acquired young.

* It's not a short contract so you can't put up with it up for a year or two while working out what to do. You are committed.

* if he doesn't work out or he's been passed, not easy to move.


You have think management see him as the #1 for the 4 to 5 years. Will Demko just move on? Take 1 year short $4.5m deals? What happens if Demko has a good, healthy year and is looking at UFA. Do they just let him walk because they are already committed? Retain salaryor but out?


Maybe Vancouver are happy committing to mushy meh-tier goaltending for 5 years rather than risk missing out. Maybe they see a #1 at a bargain price. Time will tell.
 
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Slapshot_11 said:
Terrible signing that reeks of desperation. You don't even know if he can handle a full season as the number 1 and you're rushing to sign him

The cracks are starting to show in this management group
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This is a shit take. The dollars are not #1 starter money...so...? The dollars don't suggest that he will be expected to "handle a full season as the number 1"

Honestly don't have a clue what you are going on about with crack and this mgmt group.

Mostly seems like a Twitter or troll account comment?
 
Cap and term are a bit more than ideal, especially the term.

BUT if I've learned one thing from being a Canucks fan, it's that life is pain. If I've learned two things, it's don't f*** with the net.

Top #1 guys have been signing for $8.n million per, so having Demko and Lank at $9.5 puts us in line with that. Question is whether Demko's health and Lankinen's consistency will give us top tier results for the investment.

Agree with those that think this makes it more likely they keep Demko, at least for his contract. See if a true goaltending committee can let Demko stay healthy and then make a decision a year from now.

Could also seer Demko getting dealt for a cheaper 1B, but think they'll give him another offseason to see if he can tweak his game and training to stay healthy.
 
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Just A Bit Outside said:
Made sense for this to get done:

1. Lankinen has played well.
2. Severe concerns over Demko's health
3. Limited FA options of note
4. No depth of substance in the AHL
5. Rising cap
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I don’t have a strong opinion on this. They had to do it. Obviously it cost more than what we all ideally wanted.

I thought it’d be in this ball park but with less protection or no fifth year.

But hey, your starter got injured - again. For the fourth time in a year. There is zero leverage if you aren’t willing to play the goalie carousels in the summer and get stuck with the worst one.

I get what people are saying about how there’s goalies in this tier (or proxy to this tier) are so hard to predict and go through these up and down phases, but idk, Lankinen just seems fine. If he’s a low end starter who gets hot… you just hope he’s hot when your team needs him to be. And that he’s hot frequently enough that it mitigated for when he’s not able to make up for your team playing like shit and losing 6-2. Which is kinda what we’ve seen.

This is a big bet.
 
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Peen said:
But hey, your starter got injured - again. For the fourth time in a year. There is zero leverage if you aren’t willing to play the goalie carousels in the summer and get stuck with the worst one
Click to expand...
Especially with the crap we have behind Lankinen.

Silovs and Tolopilo, in a best case scenario, are average NHL prospects at this point. Young is years away if he ever gets there.

Lank obviously way outperformed his contract this season, by maybe up to $3 million. He gets an extra season and is maybe overpaid by 500k on the deal.

But, with the way Tochett emphasizes a defense first approach I think Lank is in a good position to live up to his numbers.

I actually think he’s in a good position to be successful enough that we look back on this contract and think we got great value on the deal.

While you hate to overpay a guy over such a short sample size, the other side of this is that although he’s 29, he’s only played 209 games in total across 5 leagues over the last 8 seasons.
There’s not a lot of miles on him.

If there’s a concern it might be that 5 years is an especially long time to be utilizing Ian Clark’s approach which is said to be hard on goalies.
 
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me2 said:
What an awkward contract for the team.

* It rules out getting a high end goalie because that's too much combined cap. Replacement is going to have to come from within or be acquired young.

* It's not a short contract so you can't put up with it up for a year or two while working out what to do. You are committed.

* if he doesn't work out or he's been passed, not easy to move.


You have think management see him as the #1 for the 4 to 5 years. Will Demko just move on? Take 1 year short $4.5m deals? What happens if Demko has a good, healthy year and is looking at UFA. Do they just let him walk because they are already committed? Retain salaryor but out?


Maybe Vancouver are happy committing to mushy meh-tier goaltending for 5 years rather than risk missing out. Maybe they see a #1 at a bargain price. Time will tell.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree with everything here. If Demko stays healthy, this is an awkward contract because we could end up in the same boat as the Kraken. They have buyers remorse pretty hard right now, sending Grubauer down after locking him in at $5.9M.

Demko is coming up on his last year, and despite his health, you know he's going to want a raise on $5M per year. He's not a 1A like Lankinen is, he's a top 15 starter in the NHL at worst when he's on top of his game. Maybe they move on from him and hope that Silovs figures it out? idk what their play is here, genuinely surprised by the move.
 
VintageBure said:
why do we keep signing guys mid season? He’s had a great year but it feels like we sign high on everyone when their playing well rather than reevaluating when we need to
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Because waiting until the off season means everyone else will take a crack at Lankinen. With Demko's near constant injuries, we run the risk of losing Lankinen and having to bargain hunt for a replacement who may not be as good as he's been.

Basically, we're gambling no matter what we do. Better to do it with a guy you already know.

As for Demko. This contract more or less says management doesn't believe he'll ever be a reliable option.
 
What does this mean for Silovs? In 5 years he'll be 28. If his development proceeds like that of a typical goalie, he'll be ready to take over by that time. Is this basically a contract meant to take the team there? He'll be ready to step in as an NHL regular, if not a 60+ game starter before then, and perhaps this contract is meant to enable Silovs to gradually increase his NHL playing time until then.
 
Reverend Mayhem said:
You care to expand or should I take your word for it?
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Hockey culture emphasizes toughness and commitment to the team. Players don’t want to let their teammates down.

Modern medicine, including painkillers and injections, can temporarily mask injuries, making players believe they can push through when they really shouldn’t.
 
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