Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Enter Search Term. Use arrows to navigate between autocomplete results. If no results appear, use Enter to do a full site search.
Forum Closure ×
Canucks Community
Forum Closure

Jacob Markstrom | #25 | G

Honeydew

By Honeydew
in Alumni

 Share

Recommended Posts

kloubek Canucks First-Line

kloubek

Posted
Posted (edited)

It is difficult to say precisely how good Markstrom is, but we have a pretty good indication how he fared against the competition last season.  Even though I watched most of the games last season, I honestly cannot recall from what position he was typically scored on.  I do remember, however, that on several occasions he was hung out to dry by our d not being able to effectively box out the opposition forwards.  Hopefully with our blueline retool, that should be improved dramatically and it will allow him to shine.

 

Even as it is, his save percentage was good for 46th in the league total... or 29th for any goalie playing 25 or more games.  This basically puts him on the low end of starting goalie stats, and if you factor in the likelihood that our defense was responsible for more goals being scored against him than on the average team, he'd definitely improve on that number; I'd say anywhere from 20th to 25th... though that is hardly scientific.

Of course, even adjusted, those are hardly elite numbers, but considering he still has more to learn I'm satisfied with that so early in his career.  Assuming Demko turns out to be the elite goalie we are all hoping, that gives us an incredible tandem in net, and absolutely provides us with tradable assets between the pipes again.  As long as Benning doesn't fudge the situation like Gillis did with Schneider and Luongo, we are in great shape with Markstrom.

Markstrom should be able to build on his successful year and perform even better - especially given our new defense.  The amount of games he played last season is a pretty small sample size and I predict he'll really show us what he is made of this coming season.

Edited by kloubek
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Phat Fingers Canucks First-Line

Phat Fingers

Posted
Posted

Nergish,

 

 

I don't  have a sarcasm button, so apologies for the 'goaltender @$&@&@@&" statement. 

 

I was being cheeky, and realize that we are all a little traumatized from the whole aftermath of 2011. 

 

I couldn't agree more about Demko's timing and how he and Markstrom are coming on at an ideal time for this franchise. 

 

Miller clears the books this year, and Markstrom is going to get a raise, but we should still save cap as I doubt Markstrom will be paid as much as Miller.

 

Good times ahead in net for the Canucks. 

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
kloubek Canucks First-Line

kloubek

Posted
Posted (edited)

Good to hear.  Very curious on the amount and term.  On one hand, he's still a backup, but on the other, I'm fairly confident he will indeed be a #1 goalie in this league.  If last year's stats have anything to say about it, he's almost at that level already.

Edited by kloubek
Link to comment
Share on other sites
PhillipBlunt Canucks Hall-of-Famer

PhillipBlunt

Posted
Posted
On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 2:07 AM, guntrix said:

Since it hasn't been posted on here yet:

 

 

Great to see. I just hope that JB is more knowledgable than he sounds because I literally feel like I'm losing brain cells hearing him speak.

Jason Brough? Is that you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
Angry Goose Canucks Franchise Player

Angry Goose

Posted
Posted
On 7/8/2016 at 2:07 AM, guntrix said:

 

 

Great to see. I just hope that JB is more knowledgable than he sounds because I literally feel like I'm losing brain cells hearing him speak.

A 6th overall draft pick, over 600 career games and years of management experience and scouting.  I think he knows a thing or two about hockey ;)

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
mll Canucks All-Star

mll

Posted
Posted

From the IIHF website: 

Quote
Making of a goalie - Markstrom’s as close to a born goalie as you can be
09.09.2016

HELSINKI – If there is such a thing as a goalie gene, Sweden’s Jacob Markstrom must have it. After all, he comes from a family of goalies. His mother used to be a handball goalie, his father a football goalkeeper in a top Swedish team, and his brother a football goalkeeper. 

“I was a goalie in football, too, and growing up my brother watched dad play, and he remembers his games better than I do but I then looked up to dad and my brother,” Markstrom told IIHF.com. 

“I’ve always played other positions, too, but when you’re a goalie you can be a hero if you play well, and take the blame if they don’t. Also, goaltenders can play the entire game,” he adds with a smile. 

Markstrom’s definitely got the genes. At 198 cm, he’s the prototypical modern goalie, a mountain of a man who’s still got the nimble moves of a gymnast. And yet, it’s taken the one-time wunderkind a little longer to climb to the top of the hockey world than many expected when he left the Swedish league six years ago. 

After two years in the AHL, and a handful of NHL games, Markstrom made his breakthrough in 2013 with the Florida Panthers, who had drafted him early in the second round, 31st overall in 2008. He played 23 games but when the Panthers signed Tim Thomas, Markstrom only got twelve starts – and didn’t fare well in them. In 2013/14, 97 goalies played in the NHL, and of all the goalies that played in more than one game, only three had a lower save percentage than Markstrom’s 87.3. Of the three, Martin Biron retired after two games, and Nikolai Khabibulin retired after suffering a hip injury. 

The Panthers traded him to the Vancouver Canucks. 

The next season, he got two starts in the NHL, played a total of 77.38 minutes, and posted a 87.9 save percentage. The Canucks goalie coach Rollie Melanson talked about Markstrom as a re-building project. 

“I like to stay open-minded and I’m happy to try new things – as long as they work for me. But when you’re re-building you’re on the ice a lot, you just have to build more skills and then work on them until they become a second nature,” he said. 

“Of course, you have to feel comfortable with the changes, they can’t be anything that just the coach wants to make,” he added. 

At the start of the 2014/15 season, the Canucks put him on waivers early to sneak him through so they’d be able to send him to their farm team in Utica. Their plan worked, and Markstrom spent most of the season in the AHL, and found his game. 

While he may have disappeared a little from the NHL radar, he says it was as tough a time for him as one might think. 

“I had a lot of fun that season, we went all the way to the Calder Cup final with the Utica Comets,” he says. 

Last season, he was back with the big club. He got more starts than ever before in his NHL career, 30, and he posted a respectable 91.5 save percentage, tied with, for example, Finland’s Tuukka Rask. 

And now he’s playing in the World Cup of Hockey, and showed in the first pre-tournament game that he’s ready to go, turning away all eleven shots he faced in 31 minutes of play. 

“It was the first game, so it’s natural things weren’t perfect but we got better after the first ten minutes. They were on top of things in the beginning, then we took over in my opinion,” he told IIHF.com after Sweden’s 3-2 overtime loss to Finland in Helsinki. 

“Playing half the game isn’t that strange, it’s just half as long as usual. But of course it was good that I got the start so that I could warm up and prepare for the game the way I always do,” he added. 

Sweden’s expected starter is the New York Rangers star Henrik Lundqvist who played every single second for Sweden at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, but didn’t dress for Thursday’s game. But should coach Rikard Gronborg want to make a goalie change, he knows he’s got a reliable back-up in Markstrom, who’s a real natural. 

Then again, maybe it’s not nature, maybe it’s nurture. Maybe growing up with goalies made him one, too. 

“My little sister’s not a goalie,” Markstrom says, "I guess she was a little smarter than me.” 

RISTO PAKARINEN

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
apollo Canucks Franchise Player

apollo

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Alflives said:

Lundquist starts, but if he gives up the net to Marky, he will not get it back. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see marky start Saturday... He's simply been better and it's a short tournament. 

 

If Henry does start, his leash can't be too long 

 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
IBatch Canucks Hall-of-Famer

IBatch

Posted
Posted

Markstrom proved last season that he belongs in this league, and waited and prepared in the minors enough to know what it means to keep playing his heart out.  His stats were middling across the boards for #1 goaltenders, with a less than helpful team in front of him.  Personally I am excited about this guy, and if Miller falters wouldn't be surprised if he takes over, or at least plays close to half the starts.  Better defense this year should help push his stats into the next tier of starters, and if he can continue to improve and use his size he could be the next Rinne or Bishop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...