Kevin Lankinen's Prove It Season

The Nashville Predators' back up goaltender won't split starts evenly with Juuse Saros, but Kevin Lankinen will do all he can with the games he is given.

In a challenging 2022-23 season, the Nashville Predators relied heavily on their goaltending. Much of the credit goes to Juuse Saros who started an impressive 64 games, but back up Kevin Lankinen made the most of his 18 starts last season. 

Despite playing behind one of the hardest working goaltenders in the league, Lankinen did plenty in net to help the Predators team in front of him. He won his first start in the second game of the Global Series back on October 8 and hit his stride in early 2023 winning five of the six games he played between January and mid March. Lankinen's final seven games of the season were all against future playoff teams, and on April 4 he helped the Preds defeat the eventual Stanley Cup winning Vegas Golden Knights in overtime. 

As a goaltending tandem, only Boston's Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman outperformed Saros and Lankinen last season. The Predators' net minders together averaged a solid .918 save percentage. While there were plenty of struggles last season for Nashville, few of the problems had to do with goaltending. 

"Our goaltending tandem of Saros and Lankinen has been terrific," then GM David Poile said back in March after a tumultuous trade deadline for the Predators. "Their chemistry is great. We had the great chemistry between Pekka and Juice, and now we have some great chemistry and the same great goaltending with Juice and Kevin Lankinen."

Former head coach John Hynes agreed. In his end of the season press conference, Hynes spoke of the value Lankinen brought to the team. 

"Kevin's been everything we wanted in that position," Hynes said. "He's a young, hungry player, very coachable. He's prepared himself when he's not starting to be able to come in and play."

The Predators backed up that complimentary talk by signing Lankinen to a one year, $2 million dollar contract. Lankinen will take advantage of every opportunity he has in the 2023-24 season to earn a chance to be a future starter in the league.

As valuable as Lankinen will be next season, Nashville isn't likely to be his long term team. Young goaltending standout Yarolsav Askarov gained valuable and extensive experience in Milwaukee playing 60 regular and postseason games for the Admirals.  After another strong season in the AHL, it may be time in 2024 for Askarov to become the full time Nashville backup. 

Lankinen will use this one year deal to improve his skills working alongside Saros and under the guidance of Nashville's elite goaltending staff. Ultimately the 28 year old Lankinen hopes to earn a chance at a starting job somewhere in the league when his time with Nashville ends. It would be easier to showcase his skill behind a different starter than Saros who tends to perform better with consistency, but if new head coach Andrew Brunette trusts Lankinen in more big games, this could be the "prove it" season he needs to land a more prominent role in net in the league. 

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