After our conversation from yesterday's blog about the dynamics of bringing Ryan Miller back to play goal with Jacob Markstrom next season, general manager Jim Benning has waded into the conversation.
First, he told TSN's Pierre LeBrun on Tuesday that "Jacob Markstrom's gonna be our No. 1 goalie going forward," in this interview (just after the 3:00 mark).
Today, Ben Kuzma followed up with some clarification from Benning in
this story in the
Vancouver Sun.
"What he meant was the plan is to allow Markstrom, whose three-year, $11 million US contract extension kicks in this fall, to continue to transition into that position in a competitive environment with Ryan Miller," wrote Kuzma.
"We’ve been grooming him the last couple of years to be at some point our No. 1 goalie, and I’ve been saying that for the last couple of years," said Benning. "I don’t know when that happens, but at some point that’s what our goal is."
Markstrom's certainly being paid like a starter and, at 27, is reaching that now-or-never phase of his career. Cam Talbot was 27 when he took over as the starter for Edmonton two years ago. Martin Jones was 25 in San Jose. It seems the Canucks still don't want to give Markstrom the starter's responsibilities without earning them but last season, before he was injured, they wouldn't give him the ice time to prove that he could be a starter.
That's the conundrum that makes me hesitant about the idea of bringing back Ryan Miller. I think it complicates the dynamic if you're asking the same two players to start changing their roles.
For me, it also brings back bad memories of the Cory Schneider/Roberto Luongo situation in 2012-13, when Schneider started more than two-thirds of the games in the lockout-shortened regular season, and put up the better numbers, but Luongo ended up outplaying him during that blink-and-you-missed-it first-round sweep by the San Jose Sharks.
Schneider was 27 when all that drama went down. Now he's 31—and he hasn't appeared in a single playoff game since that series against the Sharks four years ago. He has put up some great numbers over the years in New Jersey and finished sixth in Vezina Trophy voting in 2015-16, but last year was rough for him—he posted a .908 save percentage and 2.82 goals-against average, which are both career lows for him in his seven seasons as an NHL regular.
He's probably hoping as much as anybody that New Jersey's first-overall pick in this year's draft will help turn the franchise's fortunes around like Auston Matthews did in Toronto and Connor McDavid did in Edmonton—but with Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick the likely target, an instant fix is probably unlikely.
Speaking of the draft, Jim Benning seems to tell LeBrun that he's going to take a centre with the fifth pick.
Today was the deadline for the Columbus Blue Jackets to announce whether they'd give the Canucks their second-round draft pick as compensation for hiring coach John Tortorella, or wait one more year till 2018. Since the Blue Jackets finished a franchise-best fourth overall in the NHL standings in 2016-17, their second-round pick has never been less valuable than it is this year, so they have indeed agreed to give it to Vancouver.
Considering Torts is nominated for this year's Jack Adams award as coach of the year alongside Toronto's Mike Babcock and Edmonton's Todd McLellan, I'd say the folks in Columbus are still feeling pretty good about the situation on balance, even though that compensation rule for coaches that have been fired has now been abolished.
The Blue Jackets' decision means that Canucks go into this year's draft with seven picks—six of them in the first four rounds:
First round: fifth (own pick)
Second round: 33rd (own pick) and 55th (from Columbus)
Third round: 64th (own pick)
Fourth round: 95th (own pick) and 112th (from San Jose as part of Jannik Hansen trade)
Fifth round: none (traded to Edmonton in February of 2016 for rights to Philip Larsen)
Sixth round: none (traded to NY Rangers in January of 2016 along with Nicklas Jensen for Emerson Etem)
Seventh round: 188th overall (own pick)
Today's also the last day that the Canucks hold the rights to 2015 draft picks Carl Neill (fifth round) and Tate Olson (seventh round). Neither is expected to be signed; if that holds true, they'll both become unrestricted free agents tomorrow.
Speaking of UFA defensemen...
Raddysh came out on the losing side of the Memorial Cup Final, but he won the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL's top defenseman for the 2016-17 season. Interestingly, that's not a sure-fire predictor for NHL success—winners have included eventual Norris Trophy holders like Drew Doughty, Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis but the list also includes names like Ryan Sproul (2012-13), Danny Syvret (2004-05), Brendan Bell (2002-03) and Eric Reitz (2001-02).
The Windsor Spitfires are holding their Memorial Cup parade night at 6 p.m. ET. After that, NHL teams will likely start their courtship of coach Rocky Thompson in earnest.
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