Vancouver Canucks Sign G Michael Garteig to an ELC

The Vancouver Canucks have signed netminder Michael Garteig to a one-year entry level contract.

The Vancouver Canucks made their second free agent signing of the offseason by inking top NCAA netminder Michael Garteig to a one-year entry level contract on Friday afternoon.

This is Canucks GM Jim Benning‘s second free agent signing of the offseason after he signed top defenceman Troy Stecher out of North Dakota earlier this month.

The Canucks have been long rumoured to be interested in bringing home the Prince George native. Talks seem to have started when Benning was in Tampa Bay for the Frozen Four finals.

Garteig, has signed with the Canucks as a 24-year-old after wrapping up his NCAA career with the Quinnipiac Bobcats, the NCAA’s top ranked team this season. The 6-foot-1, 190 pound netminder backstopped his team to the Frozen Four Finals, where the Bobcats lost to Brock Boeser’s North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

Garteig was 32-4-7 in 43 games this season, recording a .924 save percentage and a 1.91 goals against average. Although not as highly-touted as Thatcher Demko was, Garteig has a superb glove that displays great determination to make the save and superb athleticism.

With this signing, the Canucks now have two netminders from the NCAA turning pro this season. Without going into too much detail, here is Kevin Woodley with some analysis of the current Canucks goaltending depth:

Although the ECHL seems a long way away from the NHL and even longer away from his hometown, expect Garteig to make the AHL Utica Comets after Richard Bachman‘s contract expires with the Canucks after the 2016-17 season. Depth-wise, this is a superb move for the Canucks and the Comets.

Here are some highlights for you to enjoy.

The most memorable save for him should be this one that he made in the final seconds of the Frozen Four semi-finals against Demko’s Boston College Eagles.

Hopefully there is no bad blood between Garteig and Brock Boeser. The Quinnipeg netminder had a horrible giveaway go to the enchanted stick of Boeser, who put the game winning goal into an empty cage.

Though he comes to Vancouver as a fifth-string netminder likely to start with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings, expect him to regain his star-status sooner rather than later. Here is insight from a Quinnipiac news source on the development of Garteig as a top NCAA netminer:

"Yet [Garteig] hadn’t worked with a goaltending coach until age 19. As a kid in the remote city of Prince George, B.C. — roughly the halfway point between Juneau, Alaska, and Calgary — he got by on instinct and raw ability. It carried him to the top of the Junior ranks, but wouldn’t be enough at the top levels of college hockey.“I didn’t know any technique or goalie movements,” Garteig says. “We played just to play.”To be successful at Quinnipiac would require a total overhaul of mechanics.“His style was funky; it was really unorthodox,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “He had a hybrid style that would not be effective at our level and it definitely wasn’t going to get him to where he needed to be in pro hockey. And he knew that.”"

I concur, having watched Garteig play the Frozen Four, albeit online.

"“He’s tracking the puck better and reading the play better,” Pecknold said. “He’s a half-step ahead in anticipating what’s coming. The Yale game was a great example. Yale had really good scoring chances and he was in position and ready to make the save before the puck left a stick. In previous years he might have been coming across as the shot was released.”"

So will we see a Demko-Garteig tandem at the Young Stars Classic this coming season? Now that both are free of any NCAA obligations, they will both be able to participate in the Canucks development camp and the Young Stars Classic this year.

Now the focus shifts to the NHL Lottery Draft and the World Championship. However, the Canucks have one more business to take care of. Top NCAA free agent Drake Caggiula is in town, meeting with the Canucks management this weekend. Wonder if Stecher and Boeser are calling him about signing with Vancouver.

Next: ANALYSIS: What the Draft Lottery could Turn Into

Will the Canucks be able to grab Boeser’s teammate off the free agent market? If Caggiula indeed signs with the Canucks, Benning would be a four-for-four this season in signing NCAA prospects (Demko, Stecher, and Garteig). Great times are ahead for the Canucks!