The Vancouver Canucks shored up their goaltending on Saturday signing veteran Kevin Lankinen to a one-year contract worth $875,000. With Thatcher Demko recovering from the unique injury he suffered last season, he will join rookie Arturs Silovs in what likely will be a 1A/1B tandem until the 2024 Vezina Trophy runner-up is ready to return to the crease.
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As training camp enters its final stages with the annual blue-white scrimmage, let’s find out more about Lankinen in the latest Meet the New Canucks.
Who is Kevin Lankinen?
Even though Lankinen is considered a veteran, he has not been in the NHL long. He has only been in the league for four seasons, debuting with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021. Before that, he spent his time in the ECHL and American Hockey League (AHL) with the Indy Fuel and Rockford IceHogs. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Blackhawks in 2018 after a stellar career in the Finnish Liiga where he recorded a 2.10 goals-against average (GAA), .919 save percentage (SV%) and 11 shutouts.
Coming over to North America for the 2018-19 season, Lankinen split his time between the IceHogs and Fuel, culminating in a standout performance at the 2019 World Championship where he led Team Finland to a gold medal on the strength of a 1.50 GAA and .942 SV%. He then joined the Blackhawks for the 2020 Bubble Playoffs, and although he didn’t dress for a game, he took some valuable lessons along with him.
“I saw the best players live every single day, so you kind of see some patterns [with] the forward(s), [what] they do, but also how the best goalies in the world play every single night. It opened my eyes a little bit.”
Lankinen finally made his NHL debut on Jan. 19, 2021, against the Florida Panthers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a memorable one as he allowed five goals on 30 shots for his first loss. The sting wasn’t felt for very long though, as he got another opportunity for his first NHL win only a game later against the Detroit Red Wings. This time, he and the Blackhawks came away with a 4-1 victory, their first of the shortened 2020-21 campaign. After that, he took over the crease as the starter and finished with a 17-14-5 record, starting the bulk of the games ahead of Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia. He even got some love in the Calder Trophy voting, grabbing two fourth-place and one fifth-place nod.
Lankinen played one more season with the Blackhawks before he signed with the Predators as a free agent in 2022. He has been relegated to the role of backup since his stint as a starter in Chicago but has put together the best stats of his career so far. In two seasons with the Predators, he had a 2.79 GAA and .912 SV% to go alongside a solid 20-14-1 record.
Lankinen’s Fit With the Canucks
Despite being one of the top backup goaltenders on the market this year, Lankinen remained unsigned late into September. He was a target of the Canucks early on, but reportedly wanted upwards of $2 million. General manager Patrik Allvin refused to pay that, waiting him out until he agreed to a lower cap hit. He eventually signed the aforementioned one-year deal, saying that he really likes the way the team plays and he’s excited to join the roster and help support Demko when he returns.
Lankinen also has ties to new goalie coach Marko Torenius, which should make the transition a bit smoother for him coming in. As for what he brings to the Canucks’ goaltending depth, he has arguably been one of the best backups in the NHL over the past two seasons. According to Dobber’s Frozen Tools and NHL.com goalie analyst Kevin Woodley, his analytics were amongst the top goalies in the league last season. He ranked 12th in adjusted SV% (minimum 500 chances faced) and more often than not provided a quality start when he got into the net.
Lankinen’s personality and locker room presence were also praised by his former teammate in Nashville, Kiefer Sherwood. Following news of his signing, he spoke to Randip Janda of Sportsnet 650 and said that the Canucks were getting an excellent goalie and a fun-loving guy. All in all, it looks like the Canucks got a solid goaltender and human being that will add some lightness to the room and stability to the depth chart. It remains to be seen what will happen when Demko returns, but with Silovs’ ability to pass through waivers, Lankinen will likely remain the backup and Silovs will be sent down to Abbotsford.
3 Fun Facts
- Lankinen also was teammates with Pius Suter when he played one season with the Blackhawks in 2020-21.
- When Lankinen first dresses for the Canucks, he will become only the second Finnish goaltender to do so, joining Mika Noronen who played four games in 2005-06 after being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres.
- Lankinen is an avid reader, but not just one genre, citing books on American History, spiritual stuff and Matthew McConaughey’s autobiography as recent reads during an interview before the 2024 All-Star Break. He also started a Facebook-based reading circle with Finnish publisher WSOY in 2019. With it, he wanted to “influence especially young people’s reading and encourage other people to get into books.”
Preseason Gets Started On Tuesday Against the Kraken
Lankinen is set to join the Canucks on Monday after training camp concludes and will probably get a few preseason starts to get acclimated to the team. As for who will get the privilege of starting on opening night against the Calgary Flames, the battle is on for both Lankinen and Silovs to prove to Tocchet and the coaching staff who deserves the nod.
The Canucks’ first preseason tilt is on Tuesday (Sept. 24) against the Seattle Kraken, followed by a date at Abbotsford Centre on Wednesday (Sept. 25) versus the Flames.
