At Monday’s Jake Milford Charity Golf Tournament, Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen spoke with the media and gave us some insight on where he believes he and Thatcher Demko stack up against the other goaltending tandems across the NHL:

Q: What’s the confidence level for you and Thatcher as a pairing compared to other pairs in the NHL? Where do you guys feel you guys are at?

A: “Yeah, I think we’re right there on top of the list. That’s the mindset we’re going in with. I know Thatcher is an elite goalie, and I want to be up there, too. I feel like whoever’s in net, we’ve got a good chance to win some hockey games here this year.”

It’s incredibly encouraging to hear that the duo believe in their abilities to be among the league’s best goalie tandems. So, let’s dive into that notion and examine the rest of the goaltending duos around the league and see where they realistically slot in.

Where do Lankinen and Demko actually stack up?

First, there are a few goaltending tandems that we can easily put ahead of Demko and Lankinen:

Anaheim Ducks’ Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek; Buffalo Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon; Chicago Blackhawks’ Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom; Columbus Blue Jackets’ Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves; Edmonton Oilers’ Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard; Montreal Canadiens’ Samuel Montembeault and Kaapo Kahkonen; Nashville Predators’ Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen; Philadelphia Flyers’ Samuel Ersson and Dan Vladar; Pittsburgh Penguins’ Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs; San Jose Sharks’ Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic; Seattle Kraken’s Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer; Utah Mammoth’s Karel Vejmelka and Vitek Vanecek; and Vegas Golden Knights’ Adin Hill and Akira Schmid.

That places them at least 19th, which isn’t great. But considering the Canucks’ duo posted a combined .896 save percentage last season, they would actually rank 20th. Which is far from the “top of the list,” as Lankinen suggested

However, context is important. First, Demko spent most of the 2024-25 season battling injuries. When he returned from said injury, he would have to find his footing again. And when he started to turn the corner and found his game again, he would just get hurt again. This made him very inconsistent throughout the season. He did have a stretch before the 4 Nations Face-off, during which Demko went 3-1, with a .932 save percentage.

That’s the typical Demko Canucks fans saw in 2023-24, where he finished with a .918 save percentage and was runner-up for the Vezina Trophy. He has proven he can be a top goaltender in the league; it’s just a matter of him staying healthy. However, according to reports from this offseason, Demko has been fully healthy and training like his usual self ahead of the 2025-26 season.

On the other hand, last season was a career year for Lankinen. He started a career-high 49 games and a career-low in goals against average with a 2.62 and four shutouts. But again, context is important. The Finnish netminder has never been a full-time starting goaltender in this league. Last year was his first season doing so, and he proved he could belong.

But if Demko returns with a full bill of health, Lankinen will transition into more of a 1B role, rather than the starter role he had last season. In doing so, you will likely see Lankinen’s starts dip to the mid-30s, which would actually result in a better version of him.

If we’re to cherry-pick his stats to something a bit more realistic in terms of the number of starts we can expect from Lankinen next season, let’s look at Lankinen’s numbers after the first 35 games – from the beginning of the year until the first game after the 4 Nations Face-off break.

Lankinen had a 19-9-7 record, with a 2.52 goals against average and a .907 save percentage. But once he started creeping up into the threshold in career-high starts, Lankinen’s numbers began to dip. From that point on, he finished with a 6-6-3 record, a 2.84 goals against average and a .891 save percentage.

We’ve seen Lankinen play around the number of starts he should get next season in his rookie campaign. That year, he finished with a .909 save percentage, which aligned closely with his production at the 35-game mark from last season.

With that in mind, if we’re to project Lankinen playing 35 games next season, based on his career averages, he should finish around the .908 save percentage mark – granted a full bill of health to the Canucks’ crease. Looking around the league at other teams’ 1B/backup options heading into 2025-26, seven options finished with the same or better save percentage (S%):

Anthony Stolarz, 34 starts, .926 S%; Casey DeSmith 27 starts, .915 S%; Scott Wedgewood, 24 starts, .908 S%; Eric Comrie, 20 starts, .914 S%; Leevi Merilainen, 12 starts, .925 S%; Jet Greaves, 11 starts, .938 S%; and Akira Schmid, five starts, .944 S%.

We won’t look much into the goaltenders who started fewer than 20 games, as they do not have a significant sample size to confidently make a case for them.

From here, it’s safe to eliminate some more tandems. Among these teams are some elite starting netminders, but less-than-average backup options:

Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo; Calgary Flames’ Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley; Florida Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasaov; Minnesota Wild’s Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt; Ottawa Senators’ Linus Ullmark and Leevi Merilainen; Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Jonas Johansson; and Washington Capitals’ Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren.

This now brings the Canucks’ tandem among the top 12. These other 11 teams are:

Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov; Colorado Avalanche’s Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood; Dallas Stars’ Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith; Detroit Red Wings’ John Gibson and Cam Talbot; Los Angeles Kings’ Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg; New Jersey Devils’ Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen; New York Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin and David Rittich; New York Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick; St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer; Toronto Maple Leafs’ Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz; and Winnipeg Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie.

After looking into some 1Bs, now let’s focus on the rest of the 1As.

Of the remaining 1As, Demko had the worst numbers in terms of goals against average (2.90) and save percentage (.889), but played just 23 games – second lowest to Frederik Andersen, who played 22. If you just look at last season, then Demko probably fits in on the lower end of this list. But Demko’s numbers were probably lower than they should have been because of what we mentioned above, how, once healthy, he was always trying to battle back through one injury and could never get back into the groove of being a top goaltender.

But if we’re predicting the soon-to-be 30-year-old goaltender is going to bounce back and return to his 2023-24 form – 2.45 goals against average and a .918 save percentage in 51 starts – with an even lessened workload, then Demko jumps up to one of the top goaltenders of the group.

Now, if we’re to look at each of the 1A goaltenders’ top recent seasons, we can eliminate another handful of tandems:

Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov; Colorado Avalanche’s Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood; Detroit Red Wings’ John Gibson and Cam Talbot; New Jersey Devils’ Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen; St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer; Toronto Maple Leafs’ Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz;

None of these 1A netminders have had a season with 50+ starts and a below 2.50 goals against average over the past three seasons.

That brings us to the top six tandems of the Stars, Kings, Islanders, Rangers, Jets and Canucks.

Therefore, we would conclude that Lankinen is correct. The Canucks’ goaltending duo of Demko and Lankinen is among the top of the list of tandems in the NHL.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Where would you rank Demko/Lankinen among tandems across the NHL? Let us know in the comments below!

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