Former Blackhawks Goalie Could Take Number One Role for Team Finland

Team Finland’s goalie situation and team situation as a whole is interesting. Injuries have played a part for the team already, but not in net. That is a different beast for them to conquer.

Among the three goalies who were selected – Juuse Saros, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Kevin Lankinen, former Chicago Blackhawks goalie Lankinen is having the best season. Last season he was the third-best goalie of this trio, but a lot changes in just one season.

Lankinen backed up Saros for the past two seasons on the Nashville Predators and wanted to have the chance at starting, so he took a chance on himself and signed with the Vancouver Canucks late in the off-season. He has started 32 games this season and has a 19-8-7 record with a 2.53 GAA and .905 SV%. He had a stellar start, but the team has trailed off and the numbers have dropped over time.

Lankinen played his first two seasons in the NHL with the Blackhawks and started the most games in his career as a 25-year-old rookie in 2020-21 when he was the starter. He had a good season going 17-14-5 with a 3.01 GAA and .909 SV%, but that was in the middle stages of the Blackhawks’ decline into their rebuild.

He left after one more season with the Blackhawks and has posted respectable numbers in four of his five seasons in the NHL.

Lankinen is outplaying both Saros and Luukkonen in 2024-25, even after the decline. Saros has had the best career and has the most games played of any goalie in the NHL each of the past three seasons. He normally starts slower, but it was backwards to begin this campaign. Even though the Nashville Predators were a huge disappointment this entire season, Saros had a great start. He has trailed off in a big way since then as the team just continues to lose and bring him down.

Saros is 11-23-6 with a 2.95 GAA and .898 SV% this season. Luukkonen is 18-16-4 with a 3.02 GAA and .895 SV% this season.

Luukkonen is uncontested on the Buffalo Sabres this season again, but they are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference once again as well. Both goalies are victims of being on poor teams, but that also may carry forward to this tournament.

Lankinen has had the most success this season and in a short tournament like the 4 Nations Face-Off where every game matters, Team Finland would be wise to start the hot hand. None of them are particularly hot, but recency bias should play a factor and it’s not a crazy idea to start Lankinen in the team’s first game. Every player on the four teams are in the NHL and very good hockey players. With a few stellar goalie performances, anyone could realistically win the tournament.

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