Vancouver Canucks should explore trading Jacob Markstrom
By Chris Rhodes
With this season already in the gutter and several goalies across the league looking to enter free agency, should the Vancouver Canucks look at moving Jacob Markstrom for extra draft pick?
The Vancouver Canucks are currently sitting 13 points back from the second wildcard spot; a real playoff run just isn’t very realistic. The trade deadline is a month away now. This is the time to really start looking at expendable assets and who will be available on free agency in the off season. With the likes of Jaroslav Halak, Antti Raanta, Jonathan Bernier, Cam Ward, Aaron Dell, all looking to enter free agency, as per Sportrac.com, would giving up on Jacob Markstrom really hurt the franchise for next year?
Markstrom hasn’t had a great season and neither has Anders Nilsson. Neither of them have really made much of a case to be a solid number one goalie. Realistically, there is a case to move either of the two. Given the slightly better numbers put up by Markstrom , he is the more valuable asset for a potential buyer.
Now we have to look at the real questions. Who would want Markstrom and what would they give to get him? The Chicago Blackhawks and New Jersey Devils are the two teams with goaltending injuries that could use his services to help their push for the playoffs. Chicago is in a much worse position, sitting four points back from the final wildcard slot in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, New Jersey is in a better position, sitting tied for the final wildcard slot in the Eastern Conference.
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New Jersey obviously has a very good goaltender that Canucks fans are very familiar with in Cory Schneider. Behind Schneider though, the Devils could use a solid backup goalie that can allow Schneider to take a few nights off during their playoff push. They don’t want him to be completely burnt out to begin the playoffs.
With the loss of Corey Crawford, the Blackhawks have not been able to win games with any regularity and have gone 6-6-2 in his absence. Chicago desperately needs to start putting some wins together and need somebody to step in and hold the fort until Crawford gets healthy and is able to return.
A good return for a goalie like Markstrom would most likely be a third round pick and perhaps a contract dump. The Canucks are in a position, with both Daniel and Henrik Sedin finishing their contracts this year, that they could accept a contract dump for a year or two. Don’t fool yourself, there aren’t enough free agents hitting the market in 2018 that would instantly make the Canucks a Stanley Cup contender; they area couple years away and the kids need time marinate.
Now obviously not all of the goalies listed previously in this article will make it to free agency, but a few of them will. At the very least, any one of those goalies will be as good as Markstrom next year. Thatcher Demko is the future of the Canucks organization, but he won’t realistically be ready to take over the number one job until the 2019-2020 season.
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So the answer to the question of moving Markstrom is an easy YES. Make the move and aquire another draft pick. For the remainder of this year, the Canucks shouldn’t bring Demko up. The Canucks would be smart to bring up Richard Bachman and then mail in their ticket for the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes!