Daily Faceoff released their annual NHL goalie tandem rankings for the upcoming 2024-25 season. The Vancouver Canucks were one of 10 teams who had their tandem highlight three goaltenders: Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen and Arturs Silovs. The trio earned the 15th place in the rankings.
Here’s what Daily Faceoff had to say regarding the ranking:
“The Canucks are easily the toughest team to rank. If we know Demko can fight through the injury to the popliteus muscle in his knee and remain elite, we bump Vancouver up 10 spots. But there’s no current timetable for him to return, meaning the Canucks will rely on Silovs, who was their third-stringer last season, and journeyman backup Lankinen to hold the fort. No result between great and poor would surprise me in the range of outcomes here.”
Demko, 28, is coming off an impressive season. He finished with a 35-14-2 record, a 2.45 goals against average (GAA), and a .918 save percentage (S%). His strong play earned him 20 second-place and 10 third-place votes for the Vezina trophy.
The American goaltender will have to wait to make his season debut as he’s still working his way back from a knee injury that kept him out of the final 12 playoff games of the Canucks’ season.
Lankinen, 29, was a solid backup for Juuse Saros and the Nashville Predators last season. He posted an 11-6 record, 2.82 GAA and a .908 S% in 24 appearances. With the Demko injury timeline still in limbo, Vancouver added the Finnish netminder last week to help prepare to start the season without their starting goaltender.
Silovs, 23, came in huge in relief for an injured Demko and Casey DeSmith during the Canucks’ playoff run. He suited up in 10 playoff games, finishing with a 5-5 record, a 2.91 GAA and a .898 S% – including a series-clinching shutout in Game 6 against the Predators. The Latvian goaltender is expected to split duties with Lankinen until Demko returns.
The 14 tandems that ranked ahead of the Canucks were: New York Islanders (Ilya Sorokin & Semyon Varlamov), New York Rangers (Igor Shesterkin & Jonathan Quick), Nashville Predators (Juuse Saros & Scott Wedgewood), Winnipeg Jets (Connor Hellebuyck, Kaapo Kahkonen & Eric Comrie), Dallas Stars (Jake Oettinger & Casey DeSmith), New Jersey Devils (Jacob Markstrom & Jake Allen), Boston Bruins (Jeremy Swayman, Joonas Korpisalo & Brandon Bussi), St. Louis Blues (Jordan Binnington & Joel Hofer), Carolina Hurricanes (Frederik Anderson & Pyotr Kochetkov), Florida Panthers (Sergei Bobrovsky, Spencer Knight & Chris Driedger), Washington Capitals (Charlie Lindgren & Logan Thompson), Ottawa Senators (Linus Ullmark & Anton Forsberg), Tampa Bay Lightning (Andrei Vasilevskiy & Jonas Johansson) and Buffalo Sabres (Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi & James Reimer).
The Canucks ranked 16th heading i
