UPDATE: The Canucks’ continued pursuit of a veteran free agent goalie worth $3.5million tells you plenty about the level of worry
The door for Kevin Lankinen to be a Vancouver Canuck remains open, even if it remains very unclear if he’ll step through it.
Lankinen, 29, was Juuse Saros’ backup the last two seasons in Nashville. He played for the Chicago Blackhawks for the two seasons before that.
He’s posted a tidy, though unspectacular, 90.5 save percentage over those four NHL seasons and were he to join the Canucks would surely be a solid choice to help Arturs Silovs carry the load in the early parts of the season, until Thatcher Demko is ready to play.
Demko’s status, of course, is the real story in all this. For the Canucks to remain in pursuit of a goalie with NHL experience suggests real anxiety about not just whether Demko will be ready to start the 2024-25 NHL campaign, but when he might be ready to return to action.
Lankinen has also worked with Canucks goalie coach Marko Torenius in the past as well.
Of course, it’s clear the Canucks are holding a budget line: they don’t want to go into long-term injured reserve, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford acknowledged last week.
The Canucks could sign Lankinen to a contract with a cap hit up to just about $1 million and remain under the salary cap limit if they were to reassign a depth forward, likely either Phil Di Giuseppe or Nils Aman.
But if Lankinen were willing to play for such a wage … he obviously would have signed by now.
Demko’s status remains shrouded in mystery, but Postmedia can confirm he has been skating. A source said he looks good so far, but it’s not known how strenuous Demko’s workouts have been to date.
