Canucks: Markstrom’s elite play could price himself out of Vancouver
Jacob Markstrom is an MVP goaltender worthy of a big pay raise on July 1st, but his talents might demand more money than the Vancouver Canucks can afford.
Once again, Jacob Markstrom bailed out the Vancouver Canucks and stole a big two points to cushion the lead perched on top of the Pacific Division. He did it in record-breaking fashion on Sedin Night with a 49 save shutout performance. With easily over a dozen highlight-reel saves, it was arguably his best game of the 2019-20 campaign.
Time and time again Markstrom has been the best player for Vancouver. Well deserved, he’s the frontrunner for team MVP and it’s tough to imagine where the Canucks would be without him. He’s an All-Star goalie who’s due for a big pay bump, and Vancouver needs to find a way to get a deal done.
Contract talks between the two parties are ongoing and both sides definitely want to make something work. It’s safe to say, with the Seattle expansion draft looming, the Canucks needed to see more of both their goaltenders before making a very important decision. Vancouver originally wasn’t rushed to get something done, but you have to think that Markstrom’s A+ goaltending is only skyrocketing his open market value.
The Canucks have some hard to move contracts that are strapping the team and Vancouver really doesn’t have that much money to be throwing around this year. They already have some big decisions to make with the roster moving forward and the Canucks might get burned if they let Markstrom get a taste of free agency.
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It’s a very interesting, very complicated situation that Jim Benning is in, but one thing he can’t do is lose Markstrom for nothing. It appears a contract most likely won’t get done until the offseason and if the Swedish goalie keeps trending up, he could demand north of seven million dollars annually. That’s a tough pill to swallow for a cap crunched team, but he’s been absolutely incredible for Van-city and the Canucks are not a playoff team without him.