Canucks: 3 reasons why they shouldn’t re-sign Jacob Markstrom
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.
Thatcher Demko is ready to be a starter
Benning has stated that Thatcher Demko is the Canucks goaltender of the future. And if we learned anything from that three-game performance in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it’s that the future is now. Yes, it was only a three-game stretch, but it was three games of brilliant goaltending.
128 saves against 130 shots with a 0.985 save percentage. When was the last time an NHL goalie put up such incredible numbers? Pretty much never. J.S. Giguere of 2003 can’t even compete with such dominance. Demko was calm, cool and collected. Thrown into his first playoff experience at the NHL level, the 24-year-old rattled the confidence of the powerhouse Vegas Golden Knights to the point that they completely lost their edge.
Dumped by the Dallas Stars in just five games, head coach Peter DeBoer admitted, “There’s no doubt that the last couple games of the Vancouver series against Demko probably rattled our confidence a little bit in that (scoring) area as a group.”
It’s definitely possible that the Canucks could take a step back next year if they move ahead with Demko over Markstrom, but he is the better long-term option. Demko only costs a shade over $1 million dollars, he would expand the team’s Stanley Cup window by several years and he has the potential to have a better overall career when all is said and done.
Jacob Markstrom is almost 31 years of age
He’s been everything and more for the Canucks. The confidence that the team, coaching staff, management and fans have in their starting goaltender hasn’t been this high since the prime years of Roberto Luongo. No doubt, out of any player hitting free agency for the Canucks, Markstrom is the guy who deserves a new deal more than anyone.
But you have to look outside his statistics and give thought to his age. Markstrom is already 30-years-old. The NHL is getting younger by the day and as the overall numbers suggest, goalies over the hill don’t age like a fine wine. Luongo is one of very few goalies to maintain a high save percentage and low goals-against average into his mid-thirties, but he has the overall numbers to back that up. Solid from the start of his career to the moment he hung up the pads, Luongo was always great.
Unlike Luongo, Markstrom has two, maybe three great years of goaltending that are surrounded by below-average numbers. That to me suggests that Markstrom, at one point or another, will begin to falter. As he starts to age well into his thirties, how can you know how long his excellent play will last? It’s a gamble giving him the price and term he’s likely to demand, and the last thing Vancouver needs is another overpaid contract weighing down the team’s ability to sign the players they truly need.
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Don’t get me wrong. Markstrom is a great goaltender who deserves the world. He’ll get what he wants, it’s just better for the Canucks if that isn’t in Vancouver. Time will tell. Benning is keen on extending Markstrom, but he also said that he has every right to pursue the open market. Do the right thing, Jim.