The Vancouver Canucks still want to re-sign Jacob Markstrom, but there are three reasons why Jim Benning should go with Thatcher Demko as the starter.
Jacob Markstrom has done everything in his power as a starting goaltender to demand top dollar and term from the Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately, the world isn’t fair and General Manager Jim Benning should highly consider walking away from the team’s most valuable player.
In a perfect world, the two sides would come to a mutual agreement and the 30-year-old Swede would backstop the Canucks as they enter their Stanley Cup window for years to come. However, for a few different reasons, Vancouver faces a cap crunch that will make that reality very difficult.
Instead of what was supposed to be a $4-8 million dollar rise in salary cap for the 2020-21 campaign, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NHL and NHLPA to sit on their $81.5 million dollar maximum. This has thrown quite the wrench into both Markstrom’s plans to extend his time in Vancouver, as well as the Canucks desire to lock up their star goaltender.
Still, it’s quite clear that Canucks’ management wants to somehow find a fit for No. 25, but as much as they feel that Markstrom is a key necessity to the “win now” model, Vancouver needs to be careful. Here are three reasons why the Canucks should walk away.
The Canucks don’t have the cap space
Plain and simple, the Canucks just don’t have the money to be signing Markstrom to a long-term deal. He’s arguably the best goaltender that will be available on the open market and there will be a long line of suitors waiting to open their cheque books to acquire him.
The Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers are two teams that come to mind when thinking of other teams that have both the cap space to sign Markstrom and the star players in their lineup that could persuade him to jump ship. As much as he wants to stay on BC’s west coast, who wouldn’t want to be the number one goalie for a team with one of either Nathan MacKinnon or Connor McDavid? Elias Pettersson is no doubt a superstar, but McDavid and MacKinnon are the two best forwards in the world.
The dynamic duo of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were first and second in scoring this season and that’s more intriguing than the one-two punch of Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. Mackinnon is neck and neck with both McDavid and Draisaitl, but he’s got plenty of talented forwards along his wings and Cale Makar on the backend. According to CapFriendly, the Avalanche have over $22 million dollars in space. The Canucks just can’t compete if Markstrom isn’t re-signed before free agency opens.