The Jacob Markstrom sweepstakes has a winner. The top goalie on the free agent market opted not to re-sign with the Vancouver Canucks but instead to join the rival Calgary Flames. The Flames have announced that they have agreed to terms with Markstrom on a six-year, $36MM contract. TSN’s Bob McKenzie adds that Markstrom’s deal carries a full No-Movement Clause.
Markstrom, 30, picked a good time to have a career year. In a market with numerous teams needing a new starting goalie, Markstrom was the consensus top option after posting a .918 save percentage and .535 winning percentage. Markstrom finished fourth in the Vezina Trophy voting for the best goalie in the league and was voted the Canucks’ team MVP. In a contract year, he established himself as a legitimate long-term starter.
What resulted was a bidding war for the netminder. Even after proclaiming all year that re-signing Markstrom was a priority, Vancouver could not keep up with rivals Calgary and Edmonton, opting instead to sign Braden Holtby to a short-term deal. Edmonton eventually fell out of the race as well and have yet to find a solution in net.
Calgary, who failed to come to terms on an extension with Cam Talbot prior to free agency opening, end up upgrading the position with Markstrom. David Rittich had failed to prove that he could be relied upon as a starter and will now settle into a backup role, if he is not traded away that is. Markstrom will add some much needed security on the back end for the Flames, who could lose defensemen T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic to free agency.
Not bad good win for next 4 years or so for the flames
Massive overpay. Holtby is way better than this dude and he really got 6 million a year wow.
You are going to need to cite your sources for that claim.
Lol Markstrom is significantly better than Holtby come on dude
Holtby was better five years ago but has been pretty mediocre the last few years.
Holtby hasn’t been good in years. He’s a backup on most teams.
Is he really that much better than Robin Lehner who got 5/25? Seems like he could have been had for less. I guess you’d have to pay me a lot to live in Alberta too.
I would put him on equal ground with Robin. Calgary definitely overpaid to get him seems they have a habit of doing that just like when they got Neal and that kind of blew up in their face.
Lehner left a lot of money on the table to get term.
And, just for the sake of not writing another post, I’ll just say here…Markstrom is significantly better than Holtby at this point. Not even close.
Holtby was overpaid. Not Markstrom.
They will be buying this contract before its done. He has only been a standout goalie for 2 years now. Good in the short term but Markstrom wont be able to fend off a younger goalie for 5-6 years.
Bad contract that the Flames will be buying out within 3 years….he had a career year at the right time for his bank account.
This year: .918 sv% 2.75 gaa
Last year: .912 2.77
2018: .912 2.71
2017: .910 2.63
2016: .915 2.73
Seems like he’s actually been pretty good and rather consistent for years now.
This is one of those “it seemed like a good idea at the time” contracts.
He was the top goalie on the market. To say Holtby was/is better is a joke at this time. But 6×6 is a bit of an overpay. Especially with Calgary expected to almost completely rebuild their D in the next 2 seasons.