It wasn’t until December 10th, in a game against the St. Louis Blues, that Thatcher Demko made his season debut after sustaining a knee injury in the opening match of the opening round of last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. However, up until that point, the Canucks had managed to stay afloat and competitive in the Pacific Division and Wild Card standings.

Vancouver sat fourth in the division and second in the Wild Card standings, trailing the Colorado Avalanche for the top Wild Card spot by one point, with three games in hand. And it wasn’t like they had stellar offensive play from the forwards or sounds defensive play from the blueliners (outside of Quinn Hughes). What really saved the Canucks’ bacon was their late free-agent signing, Kevin Lankinen.

Lankinen has been truly a difference-maker for the Vancouver Canucks. He has a 14-5-4 record, with a 2.61 goals against average (GAA), a .907% save percentage (S%) and three shutouts. Outside of those stats, the Finnish netminder has stolen games for Vancouver, where the team managed to scrape away wins off the back of Lankinen.

It’s safe to say nobody saw the type of production Lankinen was going to bring to this Canucks team when he signed his one-year, $875k contract with Vancouver in late September.

Speaking of him signing a one-year deal, what would it take Lankinen to re-sign here in Vancouver? Well, we got our first taste of what a comparable might look like on Friday morning when Mackenzie Blackwood signed a five-year $26.25 million contract for an average annual value of $5.25 million per season.

In this author’s opinion, this contract extension seemed like a bit of a stretch. The Avalanche had only acquired Blackwood – along with forward Giovani Smith and a conditional 2027 fifth-round pick – on December 9th in a trade that saw them send Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko, a 2025 conditional fifth-round pick and a 2026 conditional second-round pick.

He has only seen four games with the Avalanche before signing this extension, holding a 3-1 record with a 2.05 GAA and a .926 S%. Blackwood’s been great, but before signing a five-year extension after having bounced around two separate teams over the past two seasons and not being trusted in a starting role seems a little premature, doesn’t it?

Lankinen has shown a much larger sample size of success this season and would warrant more of a contract extension than Blackwood, right?

Regardless, would this be a fair comparable for Lankinen on his next contract?

Let’s first compare the numbers between the two goaltenders throughout their careers:

Historically, Blackwood has seen more games as he’s played longer and more games, but Lankinen has the better year-to-year stats. However, Blackwood capitalized on a great season, as he has great numbers now in Colorado and turned his impressive numbers from just the sheer volume of shot attempts he received in San Jose before the trade into a lengthy deal.

Now, Lankinen has the opportunity to do the same. However, is that really a fit here in Vancouver? Has he been fantastic with the Canucks? Absolutely. But the Avalanche are in a much different position than the Canucks are. They have their goaltender of the future in Thatcher Demko, who finished as the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy last season at the same age as Lankinen (29).

While, yes, Demko’s injury history is definitely concerning, given the previous few seasons, they shouldn’t be as quick as the Avalanche to jump on a hot start. As David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal discussed on Canucks Conversation on Friday, there is a long list of teams overpaying goaltender’s with small sample sizes of glimpses of brilliance.

Let’s not forget that Lankinen was and always has been a backup goaltender in the NHL. He has yet to prove he can withstand a full starter’s workload, as he has only started more than 30 games once in his career, and that was for a poor Chicago Blackhawks team.

Also, the Canucks were very fortunate to have signed Lankinen when they did, as they didn’t expect him to be available that close to the season. But also, why was he available at that time? He had a great season as a backup; you’d figure teams would be chomping at the bit to try and bring in his talent if he was that sought-after. But he wasn’t.

Here are some of the goaltenders Quadrelli and Dayal mentioned as some of the players that were paid to long-term deals that haven’t worked out:

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Jarry to a five-year, $5.38 million average annual value (AAV) contract in 2023 after back-to-back seasons with 34 and 24 wins, accumulating a 2.66 GAA and a .914% S%. But, since signing the contract has fallen off with a 27-30-7 record with a 3.19 GAA and a .894 S% and has lost the starter role to Alex Nedeljkovic.

The Ottawa Senators signed Korpisalo to a five-year, $4 million AAV contract in 2023 after a solid Los Angeles Kings tenure, posting a 7-3-1 record with a 2.13 GAA and a .921% S%. However, he did struggle last season as a starter in Ottawa with a 21-26-4 record, 3.27 GAA and a .890 S%. He has refound his game in Boston this season but is expensive as a backup, especially when they just signed Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year, $8.25 million AAV contract this offseason.

The Kings signed Peterson to a three-year, $5 million AAV contract in 2022 after it looked like he was going to be the goaltender of their future with a 20-14-2 record, a 2.89 GAA and a .895% S%. Since then, his career took a dive in Los Angeles, and he was later traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he is currently struggling in the AHL, with a below .500 record and an above-three GAA.

The Detroit Red Wings signed Husso to a three-year, $5 million AAV contract in 2022 after he showed promise that he could be a starting-caliber goaltender. He posted a 25-7-6 record in St. Louis with a 2.56 GAA and a .919% S%. However, he hasn’t been able to find his footing in Detroit. Husso has now lost his starting job to Cam Talbot and accumulated a 36-31-11 record with a 3.38 GAA and a .888% S%.

The Edmonton Oilers signed Campbell to a five-year, $5 million AAV contract in 2022 after two strong seasons in Toronto with a 48-12-8 record with a 2.40 GAA and a .918% S%. He would only spend two of those five years in Edmonton, where he finished with a 22-13-4 record, 3.96 GAA and a .881% S%. He was bought out before signing with the Red Wings this offseason and is currently serving as the backup goaltender in the AHL, suiting up in only three games.

The Seattle Kraken signed Grubauer to a six-year, $5.9 million AAV contract in 2021 after a great season in which he posted a 30-9-1 record with a 1.95 GAA and a .921 S%. However, during his Kraken tenure, he has a 34-40-6 record with a 3.11 GAA and a .890 S%. He has now lost the starting role to Joey Daccord, whom they just gave a similar contract to — we’ll see how that works out for them.

With all that being said, that isn’t to say it can’t work out by making these types of deals. The Canucks made the same move with Thatcher Demko. At the time Vancouver signed him to his five-year $5 million AAV contract, he was coming off a 16-18-1 record with a 2.85 GAA and a .915% S%. Not to mention the outstanding bubble run in the playoffs, where he nearly single-handedly beat the Vegas Golden Knights, finishing with a 0.64 GAA and a .985% S%.

This strategy of locking up goaltenders can work. However, it seems like they have to fit a type of prototype of having some sort of success at a younger age. We’ve seen that with the aforementioned Demko, but just to name a few more, Jeremy Swayman and Jake Oettinger.

Listen here to what David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal had to say on what this Blackwood extension with the Avalanche means for Lankinen and the Canucks:

So, to answer the question. This author doesn’t think it matters much to Lankinen and the Canucks.

Lankinen wasn’t going to sign in Vancouver because he did not feel he was worth under $1 million per season. However, he had no choice but to take that contract to prove his worth. And it made sense for him to sign here in Vancouver because he knew he would have a bigger opportunity to showcase his talent.

Well, he’s done exactly that this season, and to think that this was going to be a long-term marriage between Vancouver and Lankinen was never realistic. Demko is this team’s goaltender of the future, and paying Lankinen that much money to play second fiddle to Demko just doesn’t make sense. He likely won’t be able to find the same opportunity as Blackwood did this season with the Avalanche, but he should still demand the biggest contract of his NHL career. That just likely won’t be in Vancouver.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Would you want to see the Canucks sign Lankinen to a similar deal to this? Or would you rather see him walk for this money? Let us know in the comment section below!