Canucks: Kevin Lankinen’s success doesn’t threaten Thatcher Demko’s job, it helps secure it

It’s pretty difficult to walk away from the annual Free Agent Frenzy as a winner these days. Most GMs hope to break even at best, or at the very least, to walk away with a contract that will only hurt a few years down the road, as opposed to right away.

Then there’s Patrik Allvin of the Vancouver Canucks. Not only did he start the 2024 Frenzy by inking perhaps the single greatest value UFA contract of the year in Kiefer Sherwood, he then ended the free agency period by picking up goaltender Kevin Lankinen for just a one-year commitment at a $875,000 salary.

Let’s be honest here: Lankinen has already earned that entire paycheque and then some. Lankinen holds a record of 12-3-3, which is among the league’s best.

Not good enough for ya? Well, how’s a literal NHL record? Sunday morning’s overtime victory over the Detroit Red Wings put Lankinen’s road record at 10-0-0 to start the season, breaking the previous 9-0-0 record shared by Glenn Hall and Cam Talbot.

Yes, it’s been about as good a start to the year as anyone could ask from any goaltender, much less one who was plucked from the last dregs of free agency on an absolute bargain-basement contract.

So, what’s the problem?

There isn’t one! But damned if the fanbase and mediasphere of the Vancouver Canucks aren’t downright infamous for looking at a good thing – especially a good thing related to goaltending – and wondering if it might be too much of a good thing.

We’re not at full-blown goalie controversy quite yet. Primarily because there isn’t another goalie around to challenge Lankinen for time in that crease, at least not yet. But Thatcher Demko is returning very soon, and if you listen closely, you’ll hear the opening notes of a controversy starting to be played.

There are those who insist that, when Demko returns, it will not be as the de facto starter, but as Lankinen’s backup.

And there’s some validity to that. Certainly, Demko will need to be eased back into the crease, and that will require plenty of time off along the way. But some folks have even gone as far as to suggest that, with Lankinen in place (and, ideally, extended in the near future), the Canucks should start testing the trade market for Demko.

And that’s probably a bridge too far. Not just because, by all reasonable measures, Demko is still the superior goalie, and one of the best in the entire world. But also because Lankinen’s success doesn’t threaten Demko’s job so much as help secure it.

Look, you know where we’re going with this. The book on Demko has long been that he’s an extraordinary athlete, but perhaps a little on the fragile side. Or, that’s supposedly the book on him, we should say – but if it is, it’s one that the Canucks themselves haven’t read yet.

Suggestions that Demko has been being overplayed have been made essentially since he took over the starting role from Jacob Markstrom and Braden Holtby. And there’s some proof in the padding.

That first post-Markstrom season of platooning with Holtby in 2020/21 went well enough. Demko slowly but surely stole the starting responsibilities away through superior play, and ultimately played in 35 games with a save percentage of .915 and a GAA of 2.85. More notably, he only suffered two absences from the lineup, once for COVID and another time for a minor lower body injury that only had him miss a single game.

No worries of his being overworked there.

For 2021/22, the Canucks were ready to hand the reins over to Demko, but still wanted him to be supported by a veteran backup, so they signed Jaroslav Halak. And Halak did fine enough in that backup role, at least by the numbers, with a 2.94 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

But both those numbers and Halak’s winning record lagged significantly behind Demko’s, and so Demko started to play more…and more…and more.

By year’s end, he’d suited up 64 times, and that’s with another four-game absence due to COVID thrown into the middle.

Right near the season’s conclusion, Demko suffered an undisclosed injury and wound up missing the final three regular season games. Those health problems, whatever they were, seemed to linger, and may have had something to do with Demko missing time the following season.

Either way, that’s when Spencer Martin stepped into the picture, finishing out the campaign with a 3-0-3 record, including a 1.74 GAA and a .950 save percentage.

For those putting all their eggs in the Lankinen basket, there’s a lesson to be had here. Some similar things were said regarding Martin and Demko, though not to the same extent, as are being said about Lankinen now. Where’s Martin now? Splitting time between the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Wolves, with an .846 save percentage at the NHL level.

Success, for a goaltender, can be fickle.

In fact, the wheels began to fall off the very next year for Martin, who entered the 2022/23 season as Demko’s designated backup (or as 1B to his 1A, in the eyes of some), and proceeded to put together an 11-15-1 record with a 3.99 GAA and a ghastly .871 save percentage.

That year’s third-stringer, Collin Delia, didn’t fare much better when called upon.

That, in turn, led to Demko being leaned on a little too heavy. Coming off a season-ending injury and an incomplete offseason, Demko started 15 of the Canucks’ first 24 games, and probably would have started more if not for so many back-to-backs.

Then he got hurt.

That groin injury would keep Demko out for 35 games, nearly half the season. But when he returned, with the team making a late push under new coach Rick Tocchet, Demko played just as much down the stretch, adding another 17 games to his total through March and April. Some noted a general decline in his performance along the way.

The 2023/24 season brought with in another questionable backup, this time in the form of Casey DeSmith.

Actually, DeSmith started the year well enough and had a hot October, but began to slip as the season wore on. By the end of December, DeSmith was no longer looked at as a goalie who could give the Canucks a reliable shot at winning, and so Demko began to suit up more and more often yet again.

We know what happened next. Demko made it most of the way through the regular season, making 51 appearances before stepping out of the lineup in March with what we now understand to be a popliteus problem. He missed 14 games, attempted a late-regular season comeback, and then bowed out again after a single postseason game.

He has yet to return from that injury.

Some said that Demko was rushed back too quickly. Others suggested that the issue went further back, and could be attributed to Demko being overplayed in general.

In any case, it all adds up to the team relying on Demko too heavily, to and past his breaking point. Which brings us back to Lankinen, and how he’s the solution to all those problems.

On the surface, Lankinen is just an extremely sound backup. He was that for Juuse Saros over the past two seasons in Nashville, and there’s no reason to think it’ll be any different behind Demko – in fact, we have even more reason to believe in Lankinen now.

Given the frequency of Demko’s injury, there’s security in knowing that Lankinen will be an option to cover any absences.

But Lankinen should also play a role in reducing the frequency of said injuries and, ideally, avoiding any further absences.

Here’s why: Lankinen isn’t just a good backup. Not this year. He’s been one of the best goalies in the NHL, period, and that means that, even when Demko returns, Lankinen should give the Canucks a roughly equal chance of winning a game with him in net as with Demko.

That’s something that the various Canucks’ coaching staffs haven’t had since Markstrom left town. Not with Holtby. Not with Halak. Maybe with Martin for like a week, but definitely not thereafter. Not with Delia. Not with DeSmith.

But they have it now with Lankinen. And that should translate into more nights off for Demko, regardless of his health, which should, in turn, lead to less burnout, less wear-and-tear, and hopefully a lot more freshness when the playoffs roll around.

The difference will be that Tocchet isn’t just looking to get Lankinen a start to give Demko a break. He’ll be looking to give Lankinen a start because Lankinen is playing terrific hockey. It’ll be starts that Lankinen deserves, just as much as Demko deserves the nights off.

And that should matter, in the end.

Let’s not forget what Demko is. Sure, Lankinen has been one of the NHL’s best goalies through two months of the 2024/25 season. But Demko, when healthy, has been considered one of the world’s best for several years running. When he’s on, there might not be anyone better.

So, when Demko returns, it should still be expected that we see more of him than we do of Lankinen. But, ideally, we’ll still see plenty of Lankinen, and if all goes well, that should translate into seeing more of Demko when it matters most.

That’s why Lankinen isn’t threatening Demko’s job, but helping secure it…and the good fortunes of the Vancouver Canucks at the same time.