The TRUTH Behind Kevin Lankinen Extension...

After the Vancouver Canucks signed Kevin Lankinen to a huge extension, this left many fans wondering what direction the Vancouver Canucks are going in, and we're going to break down exactly why the Canucks signed the Kevin Lankinen extension. Before we get into that, I just want to give a huge shout out to everyone watching this video. If you haven't subscribed yet, it's completely free. You can go down and hit that subscribe button. We'll keep you up to date on everything they do around the team. But with that, let's just hop straight into the episode today. And if you've missed out, you did see that Kevin Lankinen signed a five-year extension with the Vancouver Canucks, carrying a $4.5 million AAV. You can see Chris Johnson's a huge piece of security for a guy who has waited all last summer to get a job. Now looking at this, we know Kevin Lankinen came in what seemed like possibly the third goaltender for the Canucks behind Thatcher Demko and Shelovs, and especially Shelovs after his playoff performance. But looking at this extension, $4.5 million, a lot of fans are wondering what the Canucks are doing with their goaltending now that they have Kevin Lankinen locked up longer than any other goaltender. Now the first thing, and one of the reasons why the Canucks must have went out to sign Kevin Lankinen, looking at the free agent goaltenders around the National Hockey League, going into free agency, you have guys like Cal Petersen, Robin Lehner, who's not going to play anymore, Aidan Hill, who's with the Vegas Golden Knights. you can pause and you can work your way down this this is going from previous cap hit of the AAV you can see a lot of the guys are making more than Kevin Lankinen's current contract, Billy Husso, Aidan Hill, Cal Petersen but there's a lot of guys making a little less that's going to demand a lot more in free agency, Viliemil with Utah is a guy that's looking for a big pay raise Fleury's going to retire but a lot of these guys including Brady Anderson is someone that's going to ask for four plus million with the salary cap going up so when you compare the Vancouver Canucks already having someone in Kevin Lankinen on the roster not having to get in a bidding war with a lot of these other teams that have the rights for these guys or looking to bring them back to their team or maybe a new team looking to bring them in his contract is looking a lot better stacked up against some of these guys now there's a lot of good names on this list but Kevin Lankinen has been a major part for the Canucks not only on the ice but also in the locker room I mean looking at his record 19 wins 9 losses 7 overtime losses for a .907 save percentage this is a career year for Kevin Lankinen he's two shy of playing the most games he's ever played in a season which came in his first year with the Chicago Blackhawks when he had 37 games 17 wins 14 losses 5 overtime losses he's already set his career high in wins his save percentage has been good on a Canucks team that has been dealing with a lot of injuries. Kevin Lankinen is very deserving of the $4.5 million. He is signed for five years. Expiry is when he's 35 years old. And I know a lot of people have said, listen, this is a long time for a goaltender. He's going to be 35 at the end of it. But when you really stack this up against a lot of other goaltenders, Sergei Bobrovsky just won a Stanley Cup in his mid-30s. Jonathan Quick is still good at age, what is it, 39 years old. goaltenders can extend their prime into their mid to late 30s and I'm not worried with Kevin Lankinen going into his later half of his career when the Canucks are still trying to compete and when the cap continues to rise that is a big thing looking at this 4.5 million is going to continuously look smaller and smaller year after year as we see the cap rise once OEL contract comes off the books this pretty much covers the entire Lankinen contract so it's almost like there's no cap space really gone but looking at this i believe the biggest thing on why the Canucks signed him and as you can see next to Thatcher Demko's name is the IR now looking at this Shelovis a goaltender which we will touch on shortly but with Thatcher Demko we do see today that he was placed on IR Victor Mancini was recalled this is being recorded just before the game that they're playing tonight but with Thatcher Demko as good as he's been the Canucks need consistent insurance behind him looking at the goaltenders right now Kevin Lankinen is looking like the best goaltender and listen Thatcher Demko is the best goaltender on this Canucks team but the problem is when he's healthy he looks like the best player on the Canucks team best goaltender I should say because Quinn Hughes is the best player but looking at Thatcher Demko yes having him as a starting goaltender having a Vezina finalist when he finished I believe it was second last year having a 35-14-2 season with a .918 save percentage. You can see back-to-back seasons. when he had a .915 save percentage in 2021 and 21-22. Thatcher Demko is the starting goaltender on this team, but the Canucks needed to lock someone up on a deal to have the insurance of a goaltender to play between the pipes. I mean, looking at the log of injuries for Thatcher Demko dating back to February 27th, 2023. you can pause and you can work through this. Thatcher Demko groin has been removed from injury reserve. his knee has been moved to long-term injury reserve. coming off a knee injury, back with a knee injury, coming off with a knee injury. we've seen him go down last playoffs with an injury that a lot of specialists said they've never seen before. Thatcher Demko has been incredible. but the Canucks need to make sure they don't go down the route of not having a goaltender I mean looking at Demko he's signed for two more years there has been rumors we've seen teams connected to him Carolina has apparently called the Canucks and if you missed that there's an episode we did just yesterday go check that out but we know there's teams calling on Thatcher Demko and first off I want to say once again do not trade Thatcher Demko this is a Vezina candidate yes he has been injured for some time but he's still someone that is top of the league when it comes to goaltenders top three in my opinion when healthy we've seen him last year leading into the playoffs how well he played at the start of the year we've seen him in previous years but the biggest thing is do not move on from him you have two years to work out what you're doing with Thatcher Demko but looking at the goaltenders coming in Kevin Lankinen came in as looking like the possible third goaltender behind Demko and Shevchenko once things got healthy looking at the current lineup or goaltenders of the Canucks Shevchenko came in with the inspiring to be the starting goaltender while Demko was out with Demko out we seen Kevin Lankinen and steal the starting job soon as Demko came back we've seen Shevchenko go to Avitsrud but with Shevchenko struggling to get into NHL action struggling to stay consistent like we've seen him in last year's playoffs it does get a little concerning for the Vancouver Canucks because if you didn't sign Lankinen you go into next season with just Thatcher Demko and Shevchenko as your two goaltenders you could be struggling to get wins like I said we've seen him come in and star in the playoffs taking the Canucks to the second round game seven versus the Edmonton Oilers he did have an .881 save percentage in the regular season coming in this year one four and one in seven games with an .847 save percentage we've seen Shilov struggle he's a former six round pick 156 overall in 2019 I do have a lot of hope in Shilov and I do think he can get back to being a goaltender in the National Hockey League but I do think he needs development in this league looking at the Canucks lines this is definitely changing in tonight's game we know Rick Taka likes to change it this is the team that's inspiring to win a Stanley Cup looking at this they need to fill a lot of things out Besser is a guy that might get moved but looking at the goaltending I think the biggest thing is the Canucks really need to make sure they have a healthy starter between the pipes every single game even if you look at the goaltending wherever the screenshot is sorry about that when you have five million in Thatcher Demko going into next year nine and a half million when you combine it with Kevin Lankinen and this is not very bad looking at like i said Sergei Bobrovsky who's making almost 11 million dollars or it might be a little more than 11 million looking at Bobrovsky this is more than what two of these guys are getting paid so when you look at the cap raising around the league when you look at the salary cap continuing to rise as the seasons go on this contract doesn't look bad but what you guys thoughts and what do you guys think the truth is why they signed Lankinen because i surely think it is the fact they did not want to go out have a bidding war in free agency with other teams to get a backup goaltender that might not pan out and i think a lot has to hinge on Thatcher Demko's injuries but let me know down in the comments right down there leave a like subscribe share with your friends we'll be back with another episode so keep your eye for that but i've been your host mark and take care