The Vancouver Canucks got off to a roaring start in 2023-24 and faced little to no adversity until Dakota Joshua got injured a little over halfway through the season. They also lost Thatcher Demko in March, but apart from those two, they were one of the luckiest teams when it came to the injury bug. Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and Conor Garland played all 82 games, and if not for head coach Rick Tocchet resting JT Miller, Brock Boeser, and Filip Hronek in the final game of the season, they would have played 82 as well.
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This season, Lady Luck has not smiled down on the Canucks. Only 23 games into 2024-25, they have already had to deal with the losses of Demko, Joshua, Boeser, Miller, Hronek and Derek Forbort for various lengths of time. But sometimes adversity brings out the best in a team and can pay off down the road in the playoffs – but only if the players that remain in the lineup step up and lead the charge. Fortunately for the Canucks and their fans, they have had several do exactly that.
Kevin Lankinen
When it became clear that Demko was not going to be ready for training camp and opening night of the season, panic started to set in around Canucks Nation. The only goaltending depth the team had was rookie Arturs Silovs, Jiri Patera, and Nikita Tolopilo, three goalies who combined for 19 games of experience at the NHL level. While people were optimistic that Silovs could carry the mail after his brilliant performance in the 2024 Playoffs, Patera and Tolopilo did not breed as much confidence as his potential backups. There was also the question of whether Silovs was ready for a full slate of regular season games as an NHL starter, especially considering his struggles against the Edmonton Oilers tracking pucks from distance.
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But then, general manager Patrik Allvin swooped in with a solution in established backup Kevin Lankinen. Signed during training camp to a one-year, $875,000 contract, he bolstered the depth chart on paper and provided hope that the Canucks could survive the early part of the season without Demko. He was coming off a good season with the Nashville Predators backing up Juuse Saros where he finished with an 11-6-0 record alongside a 2.82 goals-against average (GAA) and .908 save percentage (SV%). Expectations were that he could give the Canucks average goaltending to keep them in the hunt…
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