With a lot of uncertainty surrounding their goalies, the Vancouver Canucks went into the NHL offseason and training camp knowing they needed to add depth and insulate the position.
As we know, the Thatcher Demko injury was not as severe or devastating as the mystery caused us to believe, and Arturs Silovs is feeling just fine after a summer scare while he was on international duty with Latvia.
To offer them some form of backup, the Canucks went out and added former Vegas Golden Knights warden Jiri Patera and, more recently, former Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators goalie Kevin Lankinen.
Together, the two shot-stoppers have a combined 120 games of NHL experience, though 112 of those games are attributed to Lankinen.
That's no slight against Patera, though. Patera is still young at 25 years old and has connections to the Canucks' new director of goaltending, Ian Clark, who recently moved off his old post of goaltending coach.
Patera has trained with Brandon Wheat Kings goalie coach Tyler Plante, top Philadelphia Flyers prospect Carson Bjarnason, and former Golden Knights teammate Logan Thompson in the past. If anyone knows what to expect from Patera, it's Plante and Clarke.
Beyond Patera and the newly signed Lankinen, Canucks goalie prospect Nikita Tolopilo just held his own in his first full season in North American hockey, and we can expect that, over time, Tolopilo will only continue to improve his game here.
As long as Demko continues to recover and put a new training routine in place, the Canucks will continue to carry three goalies, including him. In the short term, that means lots of minutes and rotation for Lankinen, Silovs, and Patera, but only if necessary.
Observant fans may remember how Lankinen broke into the league in the 2020-21 season with the Blackhawks. The 29-year-old posted a 17-14-5 record in 37 starts to go with a 3.01 GAA and .909 save percentage.
By Demko and Canucks standards, those are subpar numbers, but context is important. That was right before things really blew up for the Hawks in Chicago, and Lankinen hasn't exactly played for great teams since then, either.
Now that he's in Vancouver, Lankinen helps bring the Canucks the depth and the reassurance in net they hoped they never needed.