Chicago Blackhawks: 3 players who exceeded expectations in 2021

Kevin Lankinen was brilliant in net for the 2020-21 Chicago Blackhawks.

Goaltending is some of the most important stuff in the National Hockey League. If you don’t have that guy that you know you can rely on every night, you are in trouble. The Hawks had that with Corey Crawford for the better part of a decade. He moved on to the New Jersey Devils and then eventually retired which wasn’t fun to see but the Hawks knew that big changes were coming to their net. There was no Robin Lehner or anything like that there to help either.

Going into the year, you had to assume that the job would be split between Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban who were the goalies in the organization with experience. They both did get opportunities in the beginning but they didn’t take them and run with them. In fact, they were a large part in being 0-3-1 to begin the year and giving up five goals a game. Then Kevin Lankinen came in and exceeded everyone’s expectations. He was awesome for most of the year.

He did experience a bump in the road, however. He wasn’t very good down the stretch. The team defense in front of him was horrible as well so that didn’t help but he clearly wasn’t himself either. He did end the season with a 17-14-5 record with two shutouts, a 3.01 goals-against average, and a .909 save percentage. Those numbers aren’t terrible which shows how good he was early in the year because March and April were rough.

He was lucky enough to finish strong which is nice for him. His final game of the season saw him make 37 saves on 39 shots and collect a big win. He will still probably be a top-ten rookie of the year finisher. Next year will be a big year for him as we will find out if he is a true number one or a good backup option.