The Vancouver Canucks claimed goaltender Leevi Merilainen off waivers from the Ottawa Senators on Friday afternoon.
It's a cheap swing. The 24-year-old Finn carries a $1,100,000 cap hit through 2026-27, and he'll be a restricted free agent when it expires.
Ottawa drafted him 71st overall back in 2020. Then the organization spent six years moving him through Karpat, Kingston, Belleville and Allen.
All that development work now walks out the door to another Canadian club, and the Senators get nothing back for it.
The stat line is a strange read. In 12 NHL games during 2024-25, the 6-foot-3 netminder posted a 1.99 GAA with three shutouts.
Then last season happened. Over 20 NHL appearances, his save percentage cratered to .860 and his GAA ballooned to 3.51.
Manny Malhotra inherits a goalie with two completely different résumés
So which version shows up on the West Coast? That's the question Manny Malhotra's staff has to answer, and the regular season isn't waiting around.
The AHL numbers split the difference. In 19 games with Belleville last season, Merilainen went 8-8-1 with a .909 save percentage.
Claiming a goalie like this is like buying a used car with one spotless year of service records and one year that reads like a crash report. You're betting the good year tells the truth.
Career-wise, he sits at 16-14-3 across 34 NHL games. That's a backup's line, and nobody in Vancouver will pretend otherwise.
The crease still starts with Thatcher Demko and his $8,500,000 cap hit. Everything behind him is depth, and depth goalies rarely stay anonymous for a full season.
Nikita Tolopilo got the preseason look last night, stopping 12 of 14 shots in a one-goal loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
That result left the Canucks 0-3-0 in exhibition play. The Seattle Kraken visit Saturday, so the tryout window is open right now.
Here's the blunt part. This is a smart claim by Vancouver and a questionable exposure by Ottawa, because goalies with three NHL shutouts on their record don't usually come free.
The Senators still have Linus Ullmark at $8,250,000 in their crease. But they've also dropped three straight preseason games, the latest a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
These two clubs don't meet until February 18 in Vancouver.
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If the goalie from 2024-25 resurfaces by then, Ottawa could be staring down its own third-round pick from the other end of the ice.
Did the Senators make a mistake letting Leevi Merilainen go on waivers?
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