Leevi Meriläinen’s First Canucks Win Shows Early Promise

After a wild beginning to the 2026-27 season for the Vancouver Canucks, they had a normal game on Saturday night against the Calgary Flames. While the first two games against the Edmonton Oilers were barnburners, the Canucks dispatched the Flames 4-1 to go 2-1-0 through three games. A key piece to that success? Finnish netminder Leevi Meriläinen.

Meriläinen’s Early Impact Brings Optimism

While Meriläinen had his first start on Saturday, Oct. 3, against the Flames, he actually played 30:41 on Oct. 1 in the 9-7 loss to the Oilers. He came in for Kevin Lankinen, saving 10 of 11 shots and earning a .909 save percentage (SV%). In the start on Saturday, Meriläinen stopped 23 of 24 shots, finishing with a .958 SV%. Through two games, he has a 1.32 goals-against average (GAA) and a .943 SV%. His 1.32 GAA ranks 11th in the NHL, while his .943 SV% is ninth.

What makes Meriläinen’s first two games remarkable is that the Canucks saw his talent right away before they claimed him off waivers from the Ottawa Senators. According to insider Rick Dhaliwal, they’ve been tracking him since the summer. Plus, the Canucks feel he could be on the team long-term, well past Lankinen and Thatcher Demko’s contracts.

Following the waiver claim on Meriläinen, Finnish forward Aatu Raty stated when asked about the pickup, “Yeah, great pickup…Just a really good goalie, works really hard, and just a great guy. So really happy to get him on our team…He’s one of those goalies that’s just really calm. Tall, good reach, really good glove. Sometimes … actually, he’s my goalie now, so I don’t want to give away too much. I just think he’s really athletic.”

The 24-year-old Finnish netminder signed a one-year, $1.1 million deal with the Senators on July 2. Once the deal is completed next summer, he will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent (RFA). It’ll be interesting to see what his next deal could be, especially with Lankinen and Demko signed for at least the next three seasons.

Regardless of how the contract situations play out, the Canucks have something in Meriläinen. It’s not every day that a goalie comes into a new situation, especially with a new team, and performs like this right away. Could this be another Brandon Bussi situation everyone saw with the Carolina Hurricanes last season? Possibly, but there are still 81 games remaining in the season. Furthermore, the Canucks are in the beginning stages of a rebuild. However, it brings optimism for who could be their number one goalie of the future.

When it comes down to it, head coach Manny Malhotra and general manager Ryan Johnson will have to make tough decisions when Demko returns. Will they make a roster move to have space for three goalies? No one will be envious of those guys making those decisions whenever their number one goalie returns from rehab. Until then, the Canucks will make do with Lankinen and Meriläinen. That said, with how the latter has played so far in two games, that does give the team some hope to win more games in 2026-27.

Rebuilds are tough for fans because there will be more losses than wins over the course of a season. That said, when things are going well and wins happen more often than not, it goes a long way. It also helps when a rebuilding team has a promising young core to build the future around. That could be the case with the Canucks and Meriläinen, who is already showing promise early this season.