Friday morning brought significant Vancouver Canucks news, as the club announced a five-year contract extension for goaltender Kevin Lankinen. Most Canucks fans were still riding high after Team Canada’s 4 Nations win on Thursday night, but the focus quickly shifted back to their NHL club with this bit of news. Let’s see what Canucks fans had to say about today’s move.

John Bates: Stoked to have him, hope he keeps his competitive edge and confidence. Watching him play has been a pleasure.

Craig Coxe: Understand this signing. It is a year longer than preferred, but the cap hit is always lowered slightly by the extra year. This is KL’s career payday and I am happy for him and his family. Tocc is a fan. His goalie coach probably knows him as well as anyone. Hopefully his play is sustainable.

tyhee: This deal is probably fair value given the coming cap increases, but I’m going to go very much against the grain. Despite that and realizing the deal could work out well for the Canucks, between the trade protection and the salary, I wish Allvin hadn’t been in the position of feeling pressure to make this deal. I’m not suggesting the pressure was Allvin’s fault, it was brought on by Silovs’ surprising regression this season and Demko’s health problems. I just wish Allvin happened to have better options. According to Puckpedia, Lankinen has a two season no move clause. For the final three seasons he’s got a limited no trade clause, with Lankinen to provide a 15 team no trade list. Given that at any one time there are quite a few teams that aren’t looking to trade for a mid-priced non-star 30 something (32 when the nmc expires) goalie, that 15 team no trade list could end up being very restrictive. The deal also makes one wonder if the Canucks are preparing to move on from Demko, who is about eight months younger than Lankinen and whose contract expires at the end of next season. If Demko returns to form he’ll command a good-sized raise and if the Canucks pay it the goalie position will be taking up a pretty large share of the salary cap-but then perhaps I’m spoiled by the Canucks spending less than 7% of the 2024-25 cap on their top two goalies.

Kirk Godfrey: Time to move on from Demko. Great Goaltender, too many injuries. Lets face it Demkos a band aide. You just can’t resign him.

Appleboy: It seems like a decent signing. My guess is they feel Demko is about done. I can’t see him being tradable unless he comes in next spring a new healthy man. One down and two more deals to get done. One for sure.

Ryan B: Shocked by this development. Thought for sure he’d test the waters on July 1. If we had to do a couple extra years to keep the AAV down, it is what it is. More than a little concerned about what this means for Thatcher’s immediate and longterm health…

Jon Anderson: Surprised by this contract although I shouldn’t be. Too many goalies have performed well above their level and get rewarded with rich and long contracts. Then they revert to their typical abilities and the team is stuck with that contract. Would be very happy to be made wrong by Lanki, should he performs at or around this season’s level for the duration of his contract.

defenceman factory: This contract is a sad but necessary evil. Fair price and reasonable term. In the new cap reality 4.5 is a bargain price for a starting goalie and fair price for a top quality backup. Not sure which Lankinen is. The contract clearly indicates the Canucks will not be making a big expensive commitment to Demko. Management may not know what to do with Demko right now. A decision isn’t needed right away. The only part of Lankinen’s new contract perhaps problematic is the trade protection.

BeerCan Boyd: Now management needs to make a huge decision re Demko. They can not rush him back into action for any reason, neither in an attempt to make the playoffs, or to rebuild his value. If it were me, I’d probably sit him for the rest of the season and see how he comes back next year after a full 7 months of rehab. One thing is for certain, they won’t be opening contract talks with him on July 1, unless the annual number begins with a 6 or less.

Darren C: Happy for the kid, he was forced to bet on himself with the one year deal this fall and it paid off for him

Alex Doyle: For a 30 year old who’s never played at this level before it’s a big commitment, but I’m hopeful.

Robert Philpott: LTIR for Demko and you could even bring in a half decent backup for Kevin ! The team would seriously be irrelevant without Lankenin this season!

Kevin Therrien: Outside of Quinn Hughes Lankinen has been this teams MVP. Their backup is right in house. Silovs has regained his form and has arguably been the best goalie in the AHL for the last month. Tolopilo has been good but inconsistent and needs to find that game. They are in good hands with Lankinen and Silovs. Whether he is injured or healthy this is the writing on the wall for Demko. This team can’t afford to carry both contracts next year.

Phil Chang: Pleasantly surprised. Thoughts he would hold out for free agency but it’s encouraging that 3 pending UFAs so far want to play in Vancouver by choice.

Joe Perrino: I like it, I prefer when we give contracts like this to guys who have earned it while wearing the Canucks jersey.

Andrew Bauer: It’s a fair deal, especially considering the rising cap and the leverage he had. I think Demko gets moved in the offseason

Ralph Rubini: There was a time last season where it seemed the stars were aligning. We finally got our franchise Dman, had a top 5 Cman and the best goalie in the league. Hard to recognize one year later. All considering management has done a good job keeping us in the hunt this season.

You can read more about the Lankinen signing by clicking here! And check out my instant reaction to the signing in the video below over at the CanucksArmy YouTube channel!