On Friday morning, the Vancouver Canucks signed goaltender Kevin Lankinen to a five-year deal with an annual average value of $4.5 million.

Let’s break this one down.

Lankinen’s contract features signing bonuses every year except for the 26-27 season, which is a potential NHL lockout year. When it comes to trade protection, Lankinen’s extension carries a full NMC for the first two years, and converts to a 15-team no-trade list in the final three years of the deal.

You don’t need to be thrilled with the fact that the Canucks handed out this kind of money to a relatively unproven starting goaltender who will turn 30 in April. But you do need to recognize that somebody had to stop pucks for the Canucks, and what was once a position of strength has quickly turned into one of the Canucks’ most significant uncertainties.

Clearly, you can’t rely on Thatcher Demko’s body to hold up anymore.

You definitely can’t confidently say Arturs Silovs is ready to be an NHL starter. And while prospects like Nikita Tolopilo, Ty Young, and Aku Koskenvuo certainly have some upside, none of those three — outside of maybe Tolopilo — are ready to start NHL games just yet.

So where does all that leave the Canucks?

With the realization that they were going to need to sign or trade for a starting goaltender this offseason. And as we’ve seen recently, the cost of doing that isn’t cheap.

Lankinen’s 5-year deal at $4.5 million annually is right on par with what other mid-tier starters around the NHL have been getting paid over the last little while. Mackenzie Blackwood (5 years at $5.25 million) and Joey Daccord (5 years at $5 million) immediately come to mind.

If Lankinen had hit free agency, he’d likely be second to only Adin Hill in terms of this offseason’s crop of free-agent goaltenders. By signing Lankinen now, the Canucks avoid getting into a bidding war, and avoid having to commit big money to a goaltender like Hill or going into the lower tiers of UFA goalies, where you’ll find names like Jake Allen, Anton Forsberg, Karel Vejmelka, Dan Vladar, and Ilya Samsonov, among others.

Patrik Allvin put it best.

“Kevin has done a great job for us in net this season… We wouldn’t be in the position we are in right now without his strong play.”

You can say that again. Imagine this team’s situation if they didn’t have Lankinen in goal, especially early in the season when he was routinely stealing them games.

At the end of the day, with Thatcher Demko out week-to-week with yet another lower-body injury — which the team insists isn’t the knee — the Canucks’ crease was looking as uncertain as it has in years.

And by locking up Kevin Lankinen long-term, the Canucks brought some much-needed stability to the position. At this point in time, the Canucks essentially had no choice but to sign Lankinen to the deal they did.

After all, someone needs to stop pucks for this team.

I broke down this signing over on the CanucksArmy YouTube channel, and you can watch that by clicking below!