Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen has been doing a good job of holding down the fort since the start of the season with Thatcher Demko sidelined. Lankinen signed a one-year deal with the Canucks during training camp for a measly $875k, which at the time seemed to be a smart insurance policy for the team to pick up ahead of the 2024-25 season, knowing that they would be without Demko for some time.
With Demko’s return imminent at this point, Lankinen has clearly outplayed Arturs Silovs and will undoubtedly be the team’s backup for the remainder of the season.
The Finnish goaltender’s 10-3-2 record while posting a .909 save percentage and 2.56 goals against average has been better than what was expected going into the season.
Since Lankinen signed a one-year deal in Vancouver, he is not eligible to talk extension with the club until January 1, 2025. However, it shouldn’t be expected that we see an extension with Lankinen on January 1st. The team will continue to evaluate his play throughout the remainder of the year, as well as the play of Silovs, to determine the best option to backstop the team for the future. Let’s take a look at the possible contract Lankinen has played his way into so far this season.
Lankinen’s 2024-25 and comparables
Lankinen currently has played 15 of the team’s 20 games. He’s tied for third in the league with ten wins, and his 2 shutouts are tied for second only behind Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebyuk. His 2.56 goals-against average is 14th among NHL goaltenders who have played 10 or more games, and his .909 save percentage is tied for 17th among goalies with ten or more games played.
This past offseason didn’t feature many high-end goaltenders, but it did provide two decent contract comparables to go off of. The two best comparables for Lankinen would be Chicago Blackhawks signee Laurent Brossoit and Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz. Both players signed for two years with their respective clubs in free agency.
Ahead of signing in Chicago on a two-year $3.3-million AAV deal, Brossoit played 23 games as a backup for the Winnipeg Jets and posted 15 wins — three of which were shutouts — while authoring a .927 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average.
The save percentage and goals-against average posted by Brossoit are better than what Lankinen will likely finish the year with. However, Lankinen should finish with more games played and wins, and that will natter when it comes to the negotiation.
Now that being said, Chicago had money to give out, and with the struggling on-ice play, they would need to pay more of a premium to attract free-agent goaltenders.
Taking a look at the Anthony Stolarz deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Stolarz signed a two-year $2.5-million AAV deal after backing up Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida and winning a Stanley Cup. On that Stanley Cup-winning team, Stolarz posted a .925 save percentage and 2.03 goals against average through 27 games and tacked on 16 wins and two shutouts.
Like Brossoit, Stolarz had a better save percentage and goals-against average than Lankinen and signed with a Toronto team that was in a bit of a unique situation due to a lack of solid goaltending in the Leafs’ recent history.
Taking both these recent signings into consideration as well as their numbers heading into being UFA’s, Lankinen likely won’t get in the range of what Brossoit and Stolarz got. That being said, Lankinen has proven to be a very solid option for Vancouver as a backup goaltender.
An extension that makes sense for the Canucks
UFAs that make it to free agency do tend to get paid more, so if the Canucks were to give Lankinen an extension ahead of the start of free agency on July 1, 2025. They could potentially get a slight discount on what they would have to pay after July 1st. Keeping the comparables in mind, as well as the Canucks’ cap situation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Lankinen sign a two-year extension for somewhere between $ 1.5 million to $ 2 million AAV.
Is it worthwhile for the Canucks to sign Lankinen to a deal in this range?
With the way he has played so far for the Canucks and the subpar goaltending from Silovs, Lankinen on a sub $2-million deal may be the Canucks’ best path to having a backup goaltender they can be confident can take over the net in case of another Demko injury down the line. Given Stolarz’ deal in Toronto, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Lankinen’s camp is looking more in the $2.5-3 million range, and the Canucks will need to decide what is simply too much for them to pay to retain Lankinen’s services.
