The Vancouver Canucks entered the 2024-25 season with Kevin Lankinen and Arturs Silovs forming a fairly clear 1A-1B situation.

And through two games for each goaltender, Lankinen has emerged as the 1A in the Canucks’ tandem.

Arturs Silovs got the nod for the Canucks’ home and season opener against the Calgary Flames, and was subpar in that game, which the Canucks lost in overtime by a final score of 6-5. Silovs posted a save percentage of .769 in that game, stopping 20 of 26 Flames shots.

Lankinen got the next start against the Philadelphia Flyers and was strong in his Canucks debut, as the team eventually lost in the shootout by a final score of 3-2. Lankinen turned aside 29 of 31 Flyers shots for a save percentage of .935, and gave the Canucks every chance to win that game.

The Canucks continued to alternate their goaltenders, giving Silovs the start against the Tampa Bay Lightning. In this one, Silovs was perfectly fine, and made some key stops in the first period to keep the Canucks in the game after a sluggish start. The end result was still three goals past Silovs on 26 shots, bringing his season save percentage to .827 on the year.

And as you know by now, Lankinen picked up his first win in a Canucks uniform against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, a game he was stellar in. Lankinen stopped 26 of 28 Florida shots and made some key saves to ensure this game went to overtime, where JT Miller eventually sealed the deal to get the Canucks their first win of the season.

Through two games for each goaltender, it’s clear that Lankinen is the Canucks’ more trusted goaltender.

At 23, Silovs is still young and has plenty of improvements that he can still make in his game. His struggles with point shots are well documented, and the fact he looks to be slipping into a more traditional backup role behind Lankinen highlights exactly why the Canucks brought Lankinen in the first place. He’s a more experienced NHL goaltender with a proven track record.

Despite having a higher expected goals against number than Silovs, Lankinen’s numbers are simply better across the board:

High danger save percentage? Lankinen. The goaltender who has faced more high danger shots? Lankinen. Goals save above expected? Lankinen leads at 0.8. while Silovs comes in at -3.5.

There’s no refuting that Lankinen has been the better goaltender through two games, but that doesn’t mean the Canucks should simply play Lankinen the way they would play Thatcher Demko. If this were Demko, it’d be easy to project the Vezina calibre netminder to start all three of the Canucks’ next three games (although, hopefully that’s a thing of the past when Demko eventually returns from his latest injury). Wth Lankinen and Silovs, it’s not quite that simple.

The Canucks play next against the Flyers on Saturday night, followed by a visit to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on Monday. They then have three days off until their next game when the Pittsburgh Penguins visit Rogers Arena on Saturday. This feels like the best way for them to deploy their goaltenders for these three games:

VAN @ PHI: Lankinen
VAN @ CHI: Silovs
PIT @ VAN: Lankinen

Going about it this way accomplishes a few things. It rewards Lankinen for two strong starts to begin his Canucks tenure, and gives him a chance to get the win against the Flyers team that beat him in a shootout a week ago. Because their next game is against the lowly Blackhawks, the Canucks are able to get Silovs a game to avoid completely tanking his confidence, and giving him a good chance to bounce back and stay in the mix for starts with Lankinen. Lankinen then starts against Pittsburgh after his body has had a full week to recover from playing games — the same amount of time Silovs would get to recover after starting this past Tuesday vs. Tampa Bay.

From there, the Canucks will have options, as their schedule starts to get busier in the early parts of November, by which point Thatcher Demko might once again be an option in the crease. For now though, this is Kevin Lankinen’s crease to lose, and he should be the first Canucks goaltender to get consecutive starts this season when the Canucks take on the Flyers on Saturday.