The Vancouver Canucks have gotten themselves a good goalie in Kevin Lankinen. As NHLRumors.com has documented, Lankinen has been a great value signing for the Canucks with Thatcher Demko out due to injury and Arturs Silvos not playing up to his playoff performance of a year ago.
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So it begs the question, why is Lankinen not a starter in the NHL, and could he turn his performance with the Canucks, especially if it is kept up, into a starter’s role with another NHL team this off-season.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin and stated that Kevin Lankinen was looking for a starter’s role this past off-season but had to take a step back and could be the next Anthony Stolarz.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Gord Stellick: “My question is, quite often, we look at the big, big things that happen, and we don’t ignore the little things. And quite often, the little things are big things. And here, here’s the tie in with Lankinen He did a real solid job last year as the backup goaltender in Nashville now, who’s making $2 million. So on July 2nd, it all got dwarfed, with (Steven) Stamkos and everyone else coming that they signed. Scott Wedgewood for $1.5 million per season.
And then September 21st Lankinen gets $875,000 to go to Vancouver. Now was Lankinen trying to get big. Like why would they not sign him for 1.5 or did Lankinen feel he have leverage and really blow things? And basically was desperate to go anywhere.
Because I’m thinking, why would he, he was a solid backup in Nashville, and why did they go in some direction? I know backup goaltenders aren’t the difference makers, but quite often, these little things as Wedgewood hasn’t played great. (Juuse) Saros has. Wedgwood stats so far aren’t good in the backup role.”
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Elliotte Friedman: “Well, I think there’s a couple of things there. It’s a great question. Gordie, I think there’s a couple of things there. Number one, I think Lankinen was looking for a greater opportunity. Once Saros signed that big extension. I think he saw the writing on the wall that it was Saros’s job. So I can’t fault Lankinen for that. I do know that one of the things that Lankinen really looked for was, were there going to be places where there was a route to start?
And I heard one of the teams that kind of looked at him was Anaheim. We knew Anaheim was trying to move (John) Gibson, and I think they were hoping that they were going to be able to move Gibson. And I think that Lankinen kind of waited to see if something would happen there. Because if Gibson had been dealt he could have gone and formed a duo with (Lukas) Dostal and Dostal is a hell of a goalie. He’s going to be a good goalie for a long time, but Lankinen would have played more.
And at the end, I think Lankinen just waited and waited and waited to see if something opened up for him. And the best opportunity was Vancouver, and what it could end up being, Gordie is just stepping back to take a little step forward now with the job he’s done here and Silvos is waiver-eligible. So unless Vancouver wants to carry three, that’s going to be a problem for him.
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To me, it kind of reminds me a little bit of Stolarz. Now, after last year, the year that Stolarz had in Florida, he parlayed it into a better situation for himself in terms of starting, and maybe that’s maybe we see at the end of this season, Lankinen takes the opportunity and runs with it somewhere else.”
So far, his record with Vancouver is 10-3-2, with a 2.56 GAA and a .909 save percentage. If Kevin Lankinen keeps this up, he could get a similar contract to Stolarz this offseason.
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