Confirmed Signing with Link: [VAN] G Kevin Lankinen signs with the Canucks (1 year, $875k)

[Canucks LB]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1837583069307646176

https://x.com/i/web/status/1837585274341146885

Click to read more...

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Good move. I’m not as confident in Silovs as some. He played better in the playoffs than expected but his save percentage was still .881 in a small sample size.
Demko needs to play a lot less games this year as his workload has been crazy.
Acquiring Laniken allows them to do that.

Yeah like Silovs played extremely well against Nashville, but against the Oilers, I think he was overrated. Silovs had a poor game 1 and if the Oilers didnt' completely turtle, the Nucks would have lost. Silovs was not bad in game 2, but far from good either. Silovs definitely had an excellent game 3, no doubt there. Silovs was fine in game 4. Silovs had a great game 5, and a less than stellar game 6. After playing spectacular in game 7 initially, he came down to earth.

 

[torniojaws]

Very nice deal for Vancouver. He is going to surprise many people…

His next contract will surprise his family

 

[Fatass]

His next contract will surprise his family

Likely why he chose the Canucks and on only a one year term. Opportunity for him to have a big year and get a really good dollar as a UFA July 2025.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Interesting. Where does Lankinen land if Demko is fine?

 

[Bruce Granville]

Likely why he chose the Canucks and on only a one year term. Opportunity for him to have a big year and get a really good dollar as a UFA July 2025.

And…in the Pacific you have only three teams to go through to get a shot at the Cup. Especially if you are playing for one of those teams.
One team is the winner of the Central. The other ones, in this case, are Vegas and Edmonton.
With any luck they meat each other and you have only two really difficult opponents.
I‘m not saying that LA or a possible wild card team out of Central couldn‘t surprise someone.
But just ask Leafs about their possible opponents to get to ….heck, out of the first round.

So, a good team, a good path in the playoffs and the possibility to showcase for a better contract.
Take one step back and maybe 3-4 steps forward…on top of that I have read somewhere that Vancouver isn‘t in the top 20 of the ugliest places to play in the NHL.

 

[Fatass]

Interesting. Where does Lankinen land if Demko is fine?

Lankonen would land as Demko’s backup. But even when Demko is back his games played will be managed. So Lankonin will play a lot. Maybe 30-40 starts, even if Demko is healthy.

 

[Nucker42]

My preference would be for the Canucks to carry 3 goalies this year.

Tolopilo and Peterra in the AHL.

Have Lankinen and Silovs start the season until Demko is back. Once Demko is back just ease him in. From everything I’ve read about Demko part of his problem is over training in practice as well. Having 3 goalies would allow for him to get extra rest.

Most would agree this is a playoff team even without Demko, they need him for the playoffs. I would love for him to be right around 35-40 games this year.

Lankinen around 30 games and Silovs around 20 but can also shuffle down and get some AHL games.

 

[Michoulicious]

Silov / Lankinen.

What could go wrong?

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Silov / Lankinen.

What could go wrong?

Demko/Lankinen/Silovs
Looks great!

 

[innitfam]

If anything, other teams’ fans especially oilers fans need to pump the break

He was not the main reason the Canucks pushed oilers to G7, he didn’t steal any game

The Canucks didn't push the Oil to 7, they had a 3-2 series lead.

 

[Michoulicious]

Demko/Lankinen/Silovs
Looks great!

Demko still has not recovered from his mysterious muscle injury after many months, no surgery in sight or easy fix...

I'm worried for his career.

I remember when Carey Price started having his knee issues... And recovery went longer and longer around the same age.

Hopefully things work out for him, but chronic lower body injuries for goalies are not good.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Demko still has not recovered from his mysterious muscle injury after many months, no surgery in sight or easy fix...

I'm worried for his career.

I remember when Carey Price started having his knee issues... And recovery went longer and longer around the same age.

Hopefully things work out for him, but chronic lower body injuries for goalies are not good.

Different goalies different injuries. What happened to Price has no bearing on Demko.

 

[Czechboy]

Damn, was hoping for a bigger window for Patera to crack the NHL squad.

However, great signing by Nucks.

Demko is a massive wildcard this season.

 

[Czechboy]

Demko still has not recovered from his mysterious muscle injury after many months, no surgery in sight or easy fix...

I'm worried for his career.

I remember when Carey Price started having his knee issues... And recovery went longer and longer around the same age.

Hopefully things work out for him, but chronic lower body injuries for goalies are not good.

Just to be clear, I'm an Oil fan and was pissed he was hurt for our playoff series. I hope he is 100% and I hope my Oil and Nucks unleash hell on each other.

Having said that... the quote I read was that they couldn't find another goalie at any level that has had his particular type of 'injury'. That is not the best outlook. Eg. ACL - great.. tonnes of players get them and we can say 4 to 8 months. Shoulder injury - we have windows of time. This???? Seems ominous to me. But I do hope he's back as he'd also be on the World Cup thing in February and I want a stacked US team too!

 

[strattonius]

Just to be clear, I'm an Oil fan and was pissed he was hurt for our playoff series. I hope he is 100% and I hope my Oil and Nucks unleash hell on each other.

Having said that... the quote I read was that they couldn't find another goalie at any level that has had his particular type of 'injury'. That is not the best outlook. Eg. ACL - great.. tonnes of players get them and we can say 4 to 8 months. Shoulder injury - we have windows of time. This???? Seems ominous to me. But I do hope he's back as he'd also be on the World Cup thing in February and I want a stacked US team too!

He spoke about the injury. It's a rare muscle injury. Learning how to train with it and knowing how to rehab it will be the biggest obstacles. The news relieved a lot of Canuck fans because it had nothing to do with his knee or hip.

 

[uncleben]

This is honestly pretty significant news for Vancouver, this means that demko is going to need some more time most likely, and they wanted more depth for goaltending.

I think the worst thing about this is maybe the lack of trust in silovs

Lack of trust in Ferguson, too!
Sign him to a PTO and then give another external player a contract before he even gets in a game haha

 

[Three On Zero]

He was .898, he was .881 in his 7 games against the Oilers. I agree that some Canucks fans need to pump the brakes, but this is the opposite extreme. He was mediocre, but I wouldn't say he stunk.

Yeah, he wasn’t anything special. He looked ok but didn’t stand out. He showed some potential though.

He made some decent saves and let in some really bad goals.

Interesting. Where does Lankinen land if Demko is fine?

Lankinen as backup, Silovs bounces between NHL/AHL

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I thought Lankinen was really good for the Preds. I don't know if all the stats available will quite show that? But he looked like a very solid #2 option to me. I think he was probably offered the same contract in Nashville that Scott Wedgewood got - 2x$1.5M - but he was hoping for more. Just when the music stopped on the goaltending carousel, he had nowhere to go.

I would definitely rather have him back in Nashville on a 2x$1.5M deal than Wedgewood. But this is how the frenzy shook out. Lucky for Vancouver that a legit NHL guy like Lankinen was available at this juncture.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

It will be Lankinen and Silovs 1A/1B until Demko comes back. Silovs will probably get send down at that point to play lots, while Demko and Lankinen go 1A/1B and maybe Peterra backing Lankinen so Demko can rest.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Silovs play that Peterra role during the occasional Vancouver homestand.

 

[Hammer79]

If anything, other teams’ fans especially oilers fans need to pump the break

He was not the main reason the Canucks pushed oilers to G7, he didn’t steal any game

I meant on Silovs, not the Canucks in general. Oilers are out in the 2nd round if Demko was healthy, I firmly believe that.

The prognosticators have anointed them as the 2025 Cup champs and have the Canucks 10 points behind in the standings, and I think they are out to lunch on that.

 

[bringbacktheskate604]

Yeah like Silovs played extremely well against Nashville, but against the Oilers, I think he was overrated. Silovs had a poor game 1 and if the Oilers didnt' completely turtle, the Nucks would have lost. Silovs was not bad in game 2, but far from good either. Silovs definitely had an excellent game 3, no doubt there. Silovs was fine in game 4. Silovs had a great game 5, and a less than stellar game 6. After playing spectacular in game 7 initially, he came down to earth.

Also keep in mind that Vancouver plays much more conservative in front of Silovs. He's gonna be good, maybe even great but his puck tracking is not great. 5on5 the nucks made life easy for him and even on the pk they played the oilers well but it seemed they scored if they got at least one decent chance.

I think Silovs could have done a fine as the backup. Demko has done drills every day in camp and is performing most of his techniques and drills I think he misses 3-5 games max (less if this trade hadn't happened) and that's being extra cautious since he can't actually re-injure his ailment. At this point it's more about conditioning, getting used to some pain at times and what type routine works the best etc, etc.

That being said, this was such a no-brainer for both sides, the guy is really good giving the team a chance to have one of the best tandems in the league. For him he said having Ian Clark to offer his tutelage in whatever capacity is.

If he takes his game up a level combined with a team that was way better than his previous two teams defensively, he has a chance win, play 30-35 games and get a nice deal with term. NGL, if he's as good as I think he will be, I'd rest easy having him play a 1A, 1B with Demmer for multiple years.
Maybe he becomes a 1A-B with whoever the team chooses between, Silovs and Tolipilo.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Lankonen would land as Demko’s backup. But even when Demko is back his games played will be managed. So Lankonin will play a lot. Maybe 30-40 starts, even if Demko is healthy.

I thought DeSmith was moved to make room for Silovs?

 

[Fatass]

I thought DeSmith was moved to make room for Silovs?

DeSmith moved on for more money. Lankonen is an upgrade on both DeSmith and Silovs. By quite a bit. Silovs, when Demko is back, will be in the A developing.

 

[featherhawk]

Lankinen needs to fire his agent lol

 

[Rowlet]

I thought DeSmith was moved to make room for Silovs?

DeSmith left as a UFA and he got a 3 year deal, for more money per year, while being a worse backup, which he would not have gotten in Vancouver.

Lankinen needs to fire his agent lol

Unless his agent told him to take any of the other deals he was offered and he wanted more.