The Vancouver Canucks have signed goaltender Kevin Lankinen to a 5 year, $22.5M contract extension on Friday the club announced.
The new deal will feature an AAV of $4.5M and will keep the 29 year old netminder tied to the organization for the foreseeable future.
“Kevin has done a great job for us in net this season,” said GM Patrik Allvin. “Right from the start of the year, he has shown a strong desire to compete and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win hockey games. A good leader and teammate, we wouldn’t be in the position we are in right now without his strong play.”
Lankinen has featured prominently for Vancouver this season as presumed starter Thatcher Demko has battled a variety of injuries since last season’s playoff run. With Demko being limited to just 17 games on the season, Lankinen has leaned into the starting role for the Canucks to keep them afloat in the Western Conference playoff race.
With continued uncertainty as to when Demko might be available, the Canucks front office evidently felt it best to lock up an insurance policy of sorts should their starter not find his way back to full health in the back half of the season. Demko is currently signed for one more year at a cap hit of $5M per season, which makes Lankinen a possible new number one between the pipes if the American born goaltender continues to deal with the rare muscle issue which is currently plaguing him.
Sporting a 19-8-7 record alongside a 2.53 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage and 4 shutouts over 34 games in 2024-25, the 6’2″ Finnish goalie has enjoyed career highs in most statistical categories since joining the team from Nashville.
Lankinen inked a one-year, $875,000 contract with the Canucks in September following stints with the Chicago and Nashville. The undrafted native of Helsinki has carved out a solid role, mostly as a back up to date, over 146 NHL games.
Most recently, Lankinen represented his home country of Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off, picking up an overtime win over Sweden along the way.
At 28-16-11, Vancouver finds themselves squarely in the mix for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference. The Canucks are next in action on Saturday at 10pm ET against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Photo: Håkan Dahlström. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.