It’s hard to imagine how lost the Canucks would be this season without goalie Kevin Lankinen
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It’s a real statement about what a hot mess the NHL goalie market was last summer when you think about Kevin Lankinen being unsigned going into training camp.
Just imagine if he wasn’t.
Where would the Vancouver Canucks be without him? This season would already be over.
That’s the leading conclusion we must draw after watching Arturs Silovs ride the struggle bus yet again on Wednesday night.
Sure, the guy didn’t get much help in the first period, but at the end of the day you need to make some big saves. That’s just the simple truth.
Instead, the record for last season’s playoff hero just isn’t good enough.
Look at this brutal club he’s in:
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Arturs Silovs is the first Canucks goalie to allow 25 goals within his first 6 starts of a season since Troy Gamble in 1991-92
Let us understand this: Troy Gamble very nearly was the man for the Canucks. In 1990-91 he supplanted Kirk McLean as the team’s No. 1 goalie. Then he got concussed. And he never recovered. He kept being put back into the crease but he kept getting concussed. We just didn’t understand brain health then like we do now.
There was hope that after a calm off-season, he’d be able to overcome his brain struggles the following season.
He didn’t. He was a disaster. Thankfully McLean was very up to the task and emerged as one of the NHL’s best goalies.
Silovs isn’t concussed. He’s just straight-up struggling. Sure, the defence hasn’t helped, but at some points the goalie has got to save the day.
He has not. He’s a good kid. That’s tough to watch.
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Safe to say, Lankinen’s agent Todd Diamond is playing it cool.
There’s lots of season left to play, he’d say, if he was going to say anything about how his client is performing.
But it’s hard not to look at the strong case Lankinen is building for himself, no matter where he might look to sign next summer.
The variables will be how the cap looks in the summer and what opportunities are there out there.
Lankinen was a quality backup to Juuse Saros the last two seasons in Nashville. He’ll likely run out the season here as the backup — assuming Thatcher Demko is able to come back and be the true No. 1 he and the Canucks believe he’ll be.
Would he want to return as a backup, given how he’s performed in a pinch? What would the Canucks offer him here?
What is Demko’s future here?
Marcus Pettersson is a name that’s been bandied about for weeks now as a possible Canucks target.
With the Penguins surely, quietly, slowly unwinding their roster, Pettersson is a player of value. He’s a very nice second-pairing defenceman.
The Penguins have been using him as the left side partner for either Kris Letang or Erik Karlsson for last year plus. Last season Ryan Graves was the other left-sider, but this year it’s more often been Matt Grzelcyk.
Tonight Pettersson’s partner was Karlsson. They got munched up against the Canucks’ current second line of Joshua-Suter-Garland, but otherwise had a strong night.
That Pettersson is still in the mix with the high-skill right-siders, while it’s been Grzelcyk who has replaced Graves, deserves notice.
It’s a statement about what he brings, consistently, to a pairing. It’s why he’s highly coveted by other teams.
Also, let’s ponder Letang. He’s still a decent blueliner, but there’s not nearly enough happening on offence anymore for him to counterbalance a evermore porous defensive game. Karlsson may not be great in his own end, but he’s still creating lots at the offensive end of the ice.
Karlsson has two seasons on his contract after this season. How much would the Penguins be willing to retain in a trade? He’s got a no-move clause, so the team chasing him would have to be a pretty compelling destination for the former Norris Trophy winner.
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