The Vancouver Canucks‘ minor league affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, won their first-ever Calder Cup championship on Monday, and a lot of that win can be credited to the performance of goaltender Arturs Silovs, who won the playoff MVP award. After breaking out in the NHL in the 2024 playoffs, Silovs struggled in 2024-25, but there’s a chance that after a strong performance in the AHL playoffs, he may be ready next season. Between him and Kevin Lankinen, that may even make Thatcher Demko expendable to improve in other areas.
Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked about how the Canucks have several NHL-level options in net after Silovs’ Calder Cup Playoffs performance on Daily Faceoff Live.
Frank Seravalli: Everyone was super excited after [Silovs] filled in for Demko and Casey DeSmith when they went down in the playoffs, and he did an admirable job going up against the Edmonton Oilers. And people were thinking they would just parlay that into the season, you go Lankinen and Silovs while Demko’s out to start. And they lost trust in him really quickly, to the point where it was abundantly obvious that he couldn’t do the job.
This should inspire a lot of confidence. Look, development is not linear. And these are impeccable numbers that he should be a guy that is playing in the NHL at that level at some point next season. So why would you head into this season, if you’re not extending Thatcher Demko, with him as a pending UFA? Goalies never get traded, and you’re going to just let him walk for nothing? Asking for a first round pick for Thatcher Demko even now with his health status doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. They should change the ask and go with Lankinen and Silovs.
That’s just my view, especially for a team that might not have super high expectations next year if they can’t fill some of their other spots, like that 2C role that they’re desperately trying to fill. So I think the Canucks have lots of questions to answer, but in goal with three pretty solid goalies, that’s not one of them.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, and to your point, move out the $5 million from Demko, all of a sudden you bring up Silovs, you still have $17 million in cap space, your roster is relatively full. You can start to chart a path to adding an impact forward if you free up that money.
You can watch the full episode here…
