{"id":909587,"date":"2026-09-25T21:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/909587\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T21:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:58:09","slug":"canucks-claim-leevi-merilainen-from-senators-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/909587\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks Claim Leevi Merilainen From Senators \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vancouver Canucks have become the first team to make a claim on the preseason waiver wire. Vancouver has claimed goaltender Leevi Merilainen<\/a> off of waivers from the Ottawa Senators, per Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman<\/a>. This move will shift Merilainen to a new team four years after his debut in the Senators\u2019 pro ranks.<\/p>\n

Merilainen will shift into a full-time role with a team in need. The Canucks have struggled to fill the absence left by oft-injured starter Thatcher Demko<\/a>. Three different goalies played in at least 20 games with Vancouver last season. The group was led by Kevin Lankinen<\/a>, who struggled to an 11-27-5 record and .876 save percentage through 47 games. Demko was the goalie room\u2019s statistical leader, posting an 8-10-1 record and .895 save percentage in 20 games. With Demko once again sidelined by injury, Vancouver seemed set to roll out Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo<\/a> as their goalie duo for the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n

Merilainen should offer a boost over Tolopilo, despite a down year in 2025-26. He recorded an 8-10-1 record and .860 save percentage in 20 games with Ottawa last year. It was a major dip from his impressive performance in 2024-25 \u2013 marked by an 8-3-1 record and .925 save percentage. Merilainen has a wealth of experience for only being 24 years old. In addition to 34 NHL games, he has also appeared in 84 AHL games, marked by a 39-29-10 record and .911 save percentage. His performances have often been above-average, though also subject to peaks and valleys.<\/p>\n

The Canucks could be the perfect landing spot as Merilainen seeks out more opportunity at the top level.\u00a0 He signed a one-year, $1.1MM contract in Ottawa earlier this summer and will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next July unless he is re-signed first. A strong start to his tenure in Vancouver could earn Merilainen a long-term deal that pays him to fill 40-or-more games in a season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Canucks have become the first team to make a claim on the preseason waiver wire. Vancouver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,175459,448,744,82,4584,452,48340],"class_list":["post-909587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-leevi-merilainen","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-sports","tag-transactions","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-waivers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}