Canucks’ Leevi Merilainen making most of unexpected opportunity

VANCOUVER — The last time Leevi Merilainen had the stage to himself, the goalie stepped through a trap door and fell all the way back to the minors.

With the Vancouver Canucks, the 24-year-old is coping better with the spotlight, as unexpected as that bright beam has been.

Claimed on waivers from the Ottawa Senators just before the season began, Merilainen has so badly outplayed veteran goalie Kevin Lankinen that the prospect has started six of the last eight games, including three straight.

It is Merilainen’s longest run of National Hockey League games since the Senators, desperate for saves after Linus Ullmark’s personal leave of absence last season, forced their rookie to start 11 straight games in December and January. Merilainen admitted things “didn’t go as well as I wanted” and spent the rest of last year back in the American Hockey League after the Senators signed James Reimer mid-season.

As Vancouver starter Thatcher Demko’s rehab from major hip surgery last February drags on, the Canucks are certainly not looking at ways to replace Merilainen. They’ve actually got to be careful not to overplay him.

“It's definitely a part of the conversation,” head coach Manny Malhotra said Friday, after the Canucks practised for Saturday’s home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. “At the same time, that's a part of growth — learning to take on more minutes, learning to take on more responsibility.

So, as a young goalie, that's the next step in his progression: that when you play well and you get the net, you have to continue to take advantage of those minutes.”

32 Thoughts: The Podcast

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.

Merilainen was excellent again in Thursday’s 3-2 road loss to the San Jose Sharks, even if allowing three goals on 24 shots dipped the Finn’s save percentage below .900 (to .898) for the first time this season.

The goalie’s save rate peaked at .925 through his first six games, which included a couple of relief appearances for the struggling Lankinen.

Whether Merilainen plays Saturday or not, it feels like the stage belongs to him for now.

“You always have to be ready to show what you can do and all that,” he said of the opportunity the rebuilding Canucks are giving him. “But I don't worry about anything else.

When stuff happens, it happens. And when (Thatcher) is back, he's back, and that's great.

But I'm not going to worry about that.

“It’s easier to play when you get more starts and you get more comfortable; I feel like every goalie would tell you that. It's easier to play more often than not.

But it's not up to me, so I always try to be ready.”

Merilainen said he is surprised “in a way” that he has played in 10 of the Canucks’ first 15 games after arriving on waivers to back up Lankinen.

“It wasn't the intention early on,” Malhotra explained. “But when you talk about taking advantage of an opportunity, he's done exactly that.

He has stepped in and given us some quality efforts, given us an opportunity to win on most nights. I keep saying he makes the saves we expect him to make, and he adds a couple 10-bellers to lift the morale of the guys.

So he's done a great job of using what he's been given.”

What does Malhotra like most?

“I think it's his calmness,” he said. “Off the ice, he doesn't give you a whole lot.

He's a very cerebral type of guy, and then I think that translates onto the ice, where he's very calm. Even during some erratic situations around his crease, he stays calm, he stays positionally sound, and he gets us those saves.

So I think it's his overall calmness and his demeanour that’s allowed him to play as well as he has.”

Even as Merilainen’s save percentage has regressed while his sample size increases, the former third-round pick remains among the top quarter of NHL goalies in performance metrics. Evolving Hockey, for example, ranks him 16th with 5.45 goals saved above expected among 60 goalies who have logged at least 120 minutes this season.

Lankinen is last at minus-11.23 goals.

Lankinen’s save percentage is .812 through seven starts and eight appearances.

“Like, stats don't mean a thing a lot of times,” Merilainen said. “You just kind of watch the game (and see) what happened.

Sometimes there's bad bounces. Sometimes you get some bounces and look great.

“There's a lot of things me and Marko (Torenius, the Canucks’ goaltending coach) have been cleaning up, and we’re still working on. We still have a lot to do.”

Livestream Saturday Night Hockey, Monday Night Hockey, the Oilers, Flames, Canucks and out-of-matket matchups, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NHL Draft.

After absorbing a heavy hit on the end boards with about four minutes remaining in San Jose, Canucks centre Filip Chytil missed Friday’s practice at the University of B.C.

Malhotra indicated Chytil will not play Saturday as he undergoes further medical imaging and evaluation.

“He’s just being reevaluated for an upper-body injury — not his head, which is good,” Malhotra told reporters. “So we’ll see over the next couple of days how it pans out.”

Due to career-threatening head and neck injuries the last two seasons, Chytil played only 27 of 113 Canuck games after his trade from the New York Rangers on Jan. 31, 2025.

The 27-year-old missed the first eight games this year due to a shoulder injury sustained when he collided with referee Riley Brace in a pre-season game.

Chytil has just two assists in seven games since then, but his speed and puck-carrying have helped the Canucks. In San Jose, the Czech logged a career-high 22:13 of ice time, which included the final 2:59 after the blindside hit by Darnell Nurse.

The Canucks have shown their immaturity as a team in many ways this season, but one of the clearest examples was the five unnecessary penalties their young players took in San Jose. On the last of their power plays, after Jonathan Lekkerimaki followed his neutral-zone turnover by taking his second interference penalty of the game, the Sharks got a goal from Will Smith to catapult themselves back from a two-goal deficit in the third period.

“Unacceptable,” Malhotra said Friday. “They're aware of it.

It's part of that growth. Yeah, you're frustrated, you’re unhappy with the situation — perhaps you were done wrong and (referees) missed a slash or whatever — but it's just unacceptable to (give teams) those types of opportunities.

The players were made aware of it. A teaching moment.”

There have been a few of those for the 3-11-1 Canucks.

Canucks place forward Filip Chytil on injured reserve

Tanev, Joshua set to boost Maple Leafs in Vancouver