Is Markstrom now the Elite Goalie he was always projected to be?

[*Buzzsaw*]

There is no question Jacob Markstrom has seen this season transform his career trajectory.

 

He has posted better numbers and performed better than all recent expectations... despite playing behind a porous defense.

 

But is this really a surprise?  Markstrom when originally drafted was projected to be an elite goaltender... a franchise piece.

 

The question is, has he finally reached his potential?  Or is this season an anomaly.... and just a blip in his career of underachievement?

 

There is also the fact his contract expires in 2019... what do the Canucks offer him?

[HKSR]

Offer him a "prove you can do it again" contract for a few years so he and Demko can battle it out.  He looks great, but one season doesn't make an elite goalie.  

[Grape]

Markstrom has been excellent, especially recently. But Eddie Lack was also stealing games for a longer stretch in one of our seasons.

 

When you look at the season as a whole, Markstrom's stats are barely different than last year. For that reason it's still a definite risk to sign him to long term, especially with the competition behind him.

 

I love Marky, but I think patience and logic trumps hot takes in this instance, and you gotta wait and see if he can be consistently good. 

[BCNate]

No he is not elite.  He is a very good goalie.  I would put him in the 20-25 range in terms of starting goalies, maybe as high as 15.  Very good, not Elite.

[DADDYROCK]

For me an "elite" goalie is a guy that never gives up on a play and plain and simply STOPS THE PUCK.

Not just for a few months but throughout his whole career.

If MARKY does it for a few years I will gladly honor him with this distinction.

[Wanless]

The eye test tells me he is a clear starter. He isn't elite but I believe if he can have a more stable defence in front of him his numbers will show much better.

 

To me he is trending towards 12-20 for goalies with the ability to go on a hot streak.

[NexusRift]

He's been very good thus far this season. That being said, not even Carey Price can perform miracles backstopping our current lineup.

[Fateless]

Markstrom's GAA is currently 0.04 worse than last year and his SV% is only 0.001 better than last year. We all agree that Markstrom has LOOKED better this year, but statistically he hasn't really improved. I think Markstrom has done well at making "big saves" this year which has granted him some leeway with the eye test, but he's still letting in as many goals as he always have. Markstrom is what he is at this point and I'd rather we focus on developing our goaltender of the future in Demko and DiPietro rather than risk slowing their development to give the crease to a goalie who hasn't really improved much over the last couple of years.

[Toni Zamboni]

sign 3 more years.     

 

[EternalCanuckFan]

Let's see how Demko and Dipietro do over the next year or so.  I wouldn't mind Markstrom being kept longer term but I think it's premature to assess him as an elite goalie.  He had a stretch of play that was elite but he's got to be able to keep that up.  If Demko and Dipietro can't make the jump then a good but not elite Markstrom may be still be in the Canucks' future.

[Grape]

Our goalies before Markstrom have generally been able to steal games. Lu and Schneider both consistently had games where the opposing team outperformed us but they'd squeak out a 1-0 or 2-1 win for us. Miller had the ability too and Lack had a stretch where he did it consistently.

 

Markstrom seems like he's been quite consistently average to below average until recently. He doesn't really steal games (just look at how many shutouts he has), but he's generally gonna give up 2 to 3/4 goals a game. In fact, there was a long stretch last year and even this year, where we felt that every game, Markstrom was going to give up a bad goal per game, and then play average for the rest of the game.

 

He needs to keep up his play recently for a long time, if he wants a long term contract. Given that by the looks of our offense and defense, we might need him to steal a few more games.

[Western Red]

With one more year at 4m, I say just revisit it in a year. Expansion to think about, Demkos emergence? 

 

For that reason, I didn't vote.

[Nave]

I've scoffed at people saying he's proving himself to be a top 5 goalie. But he is a very good goalie, and we should resign him. We have a good goalie situation. 

[Pears]

I think if this is the Markstrom we’re getting from here on out, then that has to be a discussion. I’ve said before as insane as Pettersson has been we’re right at the bottom of the league without Markstrom, so I’m really excited to see what he can do with an improved defense in front of him. 

[J-P]

I think he’s been elite since December. If he plays like that for the entire upcoming season he will be a top 5 goaltender in the league. Of course that’s a big if...

 

Seems likely that at least one of Marky and Demko will be really good for years to come so that’s a good base for the franchise. 

[Toyotasfan]

There was lots of talk that Markstrom wasn’t even a true starter back in November. 

   He has played great for half a season. He seems to have found his groove, I hope this is the norm for him now.

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

Marky has been doing a good job in keeping the Canucks in games this year, with credit going to Clark. And with that, with an improvement in defense I'd like to see if he can follow up next year with similar performances. 

[-AJ-]

This year he's borderline elite, but I've seen too many goalies have one strong season followed by a mediocre one. I'm down to sign him to a deal where he has a chance to fight Demko for the starting role. Nothing too long-term.

[erkayloomeh]

We'll for starters , demko hasn't proven anything yet. He's at the same place at same age as Marky was .  

I like the idea of having two great goalies and so I hope Demko developes nicely. 

Then if they are both great and dipietro is shining in Utica then maybe markstrom could become a good trading PC. 

Markstrom is probably top ten right now and I believe he is for real.

I think while his stats might not prove that I believe his job has been alot harder this year. 

Our d seems worse to me.  

Some goalies thrive on alot if work. So hopefully if we improve in our own end next year he can still be just as sharp. 

[Chris12345]

2 hours ago, BCNate said:

No he is not elite.  He is a very good goalie.  I would put him in the 20-25 range in terms of starting goalies, maybe as high as 15.  Very good, not Elite.

I couldn't agree more. Elite is a strong word.