Report: Canucks Finally Make Full One-Year Offer To Kevin Lankinen

With all the talk linking free agent goaltender Kevin Lankinen to the Vancouver Canucks over the past few weeks, it's still not certain that he will take the bait. He already turned down a PTO (professional tryout offer) from Vancouver, but now the Canucks have raised the stakes, offering a full one-year standard player's contract.

But it appears that's still not good enough, as the Lankinen camp calls the offer, which is said to be south of $1 million, too low.

"The #Canucks pursuit of Lankinen has not stopped.."@DhaliwalSports updates the latest with the #Canucks interest in goaltender Kevin Lankinen.https://t.co/h4e2SKM7eJ pic.twitter.com/0xLCscDaoq
— Donnie & Dhali (@DonnieandDhali) September 13, 2024

“The Canucks pursuit of Lankinen has not stopped,” said Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal on the Donnie & Dhali podcast. But their PTO was refused, “So the Canucks made Lankinen an offer – it’s believed to be under one million dollars."

Can Vancouver make that fit under the cap? They currently have just $190,833 of remaining cap space. But as Dhaliwal suggests, they could place Tucker Poolman and his $2.5 million cap hit on LTIR, making room to sign the much-needed third goaltender. Starter Thatcher Demko is doubtful for the start of the season.

But this SPC offer is apparently still not getting it done for Lankinen. It's unclear what the 29-year-old backup backstop is waiting for, as camps are opening this coming week, and he's still without a job.

Lankinen spent the last two seasons as backup to Juuse Saros with the Nashville Predators. Overall, in parts of four NHL seasons, 101 games started, he has a 3.07 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.