Player Discussion Thatcher Demko

[I am toxic]

This is an excellent discussion. A thread on whether Vancouver is a destination for NHL'ers would be great.

As for Demko, a .960 SV% while facing 40+ or whatever shots each night is not sustainable. All it does is give the team a reprieve for Green to abandon his "hope and a prayer that the goalie saves my ass" system and develop an actual . . . well, system.

Are you holding your breath? I don't advise it, it leads to hypoxia, whatever that is.

 

[ChilliBilly]

Can't believe someone the posts on here. We are not signing Demko to a 1 yr small contract. There is no reason for him to go for that. Everyone seems to think that 22 yr old Peterson and 21 yr old hughes are going to command massive salaries, yet 25 yr old Demko will fall on the sword and take a pay cut to help the team.

The Canucks basically have $16 M coming off this year, and need to sign the big 3 and Gaudette and 4 replacement players.Assuming Gaudette get $1.5M, and the 4 are all $1M players, that leaves that leaves $11.5 M to sign EP Hughes and Demko. Something has to give.

I could see us doing something like LE, Meyers (or Miller or Schmidt) and our 1st rd pick to Seattle for a 5th rounder. Its going to take a major piece to shed salary.

We would get little from Tryamkin, and I don't want to give up any of Horvat, Boeser or Podkolzin. Damn i wish we hadn't signed Holtby for 2 years, and had just gone with Dipietro ....

 

[Zippgunn]

Can't believe someone the posts on here. We are not signing Demko to a 1 yr small contract. There is no reason for him to go for that. Everyone seems to think that 22 yr old Peterson and 21 yr old hughes are going to command massive salaries, yet 25 yr old Demko will fall on the sword and take a pay cut to help the team.

The Canucks basically have $16 M coming off this year, and need to sign the big 3 and Gaudette and 4 replacement players.Assuming Gaudette get $1.5M, and the 4 are all $1M players, that leaves that leaves $11.5 M to sign EP Hughes and Demko. Something has to give.

I could see us doing something like LE, Meyers (or Miller or Schmidt) and our 1st rd pick to Seattle for a 5th rounder. Its going to take a major piece to shed salary.

We would get little from Tryamkin, and I don't want to give up any of Horvat, Boeser or Podkolzin. Damn i wish we hadn't signed Holtby for 2 years, and had just gone with Dipietro ....

If we re-sign Gaudawful I might just have to find a new team to root for...

 

[I am toxic]

If we re-sign Gaudawful I might just have to find a new team to root for...

You put up with Willie D in his second and third seasons here.

You can handle Gaudawful.

 

[moog35]

I could see some players not liking the travel, or its in Canada...You claimed that it was one of last places, good NHL players would play, which is completely false.
When you're a bottom feeder, or a rebuilding team..you generally don't attract good UFA's...does not matter what city you're in (unless its NYC)..
All the players that left..Toffoli, Stecher,Tanev,Markstrom wanted to stay...All the players that came to the squad ..Schmidt, Holtby and Hamonic are happy to be here.

7 players mentioned in this post in a Thatcher Demko thread yet not one of the players is Demko

 

[Zippgunn]

I could see some players not liking the travel, or its in Canada...You claimed that it was one of last places, good NHL players would play, which is completely false.
When you're a bottom feeder, or a rebuilding team..you generally don't attract good UFA's...does not matter what city you're in (unless its NYC)..
All the players that left..Toffoli, Stecher,Tanev,Markstrom wanted to stay...All the players that came to the squad ..Schmidt, Holtby and Hamonic are happy to be here.

Not "good" but "elite" players, superstars. They don't ever come here. Sure we might come in second sometimes but there is always one better choice for the truly gifted players.

 

[Zippgunn]

7 players mentioned in this post in a Thatcher Demko thread yet not one of the players is Demko

You are right so I will mention him in context. My prediction is that if Demko continues to play the way he has in the last year he will be exceedingly hard to re-sign because a) he is an American from California and will almost certainly prefer to play there all other things being equal and b) this team is lousy and will almost certainly continue to be lousy all through Demko's prime earning years. This also goes for Boeser and Hughes. I can pretty much guarantee we will lose at least one of these guys the second they can bolt and if they don't it will be because we overpaid ridiculously.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Not "good" but "elite" players, superstars. They don't ever come here. Sure we might come in second sometimes but there is always one better choice for the truly gifted players.

You can say that for a ton of teams in the league. This argument is in no way unique to Vancouver.

 

[Dab]

Green gonna ride Demko all the way to a head coaching job for 2021-22

 

[Zippgunn]

You can say that for a ton of teams in the league. This argument is in no way unique to Vancouver.

Where did I say it was unique to Vancouver? Atlanta had this problem too even though they are/were in America but they're long gone now...

 

[Bojack Horvatman]

I could see some players not liking the travel, or its in Canada...You claimed that it was one of last places, good NHL players would play, which is completely false.
When you're a bottom feeder, or a rebuilding team..you generally don't attract good UFA's...does not matter what city you're in (unless its NYC)..
All the players that left..Toffoli, Stecher,Tanev,Markstrom wanted to stay...All the players that came to the squad ..Schmidt, Holtby and Hamonic are happy to be here.

We're not a bottom UFA destination, but we're not a top one either. I would guess somewhere between 20-25th. The players that we trade for the most part like the city and want to stay, but we have a hard time attracting free agents that aren't from western Canada.

 

[Zippgunn]

We're not a bottom UFA destination, but we're not a top one either. I would guess somewhere between 20-25th. The players that we trade for the most part like the city and want to stay, but we have a hard time attracting free agents that aren't from western Canada.

I'm thinking bottom 5; us, Ottawa, Winnepeg, and Alberta (who have at least won a Cup or two). Followed by the lamest US based teams whoever they might be...

 

[Bojack Horvatman]

What's this guy worth? If we can get him to somewhere around the Freddie Anderson contract I think we have to do it. He's a UFA at the end of any extension longer than 1 year. Only giving 1 year can also send the message that we aren't convinced he is your guy, and after giving term to much inferior players.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

What's this guy worth? If we can get him to somewhere around the Freddie Anderson contract I think we have to do it. He's a UFA at the end of any extension longer than 1 year. Only giving 1 year can also send the message that we aren't convinced he is your guy, and after giving term to much inferior players.

If he continues as he has, he’ll easily be in the 6x6 with full NMC area established by Markstrom and Binnington, IMO.

 

[Dab]

I'm thinking bottom 5; us, Ottawa, Winnepeg, and Alberta (who have at least won a Cup or two). Followed by the lamest US based teams whoever they might be...

Columbus clearly is not a destination. Detroit probably isn’t one either now that the team is garbage.
Minnesota is frozen and boring.
Buffalo can’t be on anyone’s list

 

[F A N]

Wait where was this stated? I don’t remember hearing/reading that from VAN media

From an article in the Athletic.

 

[Bojack Horvatman]

If he continues as he has, he’ll easily be in the 6x6 with full NMC area established by Markstrom and Binnington, IMO.

Yeah St Louis certainly didn't do us any favor with that Binnington contract. I would easily give that to him if he finishes the year strong. If we give him a 1 year deal he may be worth the Vasilevski contract, and we would have absolutely no leverage if we want to keep him.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Yeah St Louis certainly didn't do us any favor with that Binnington contract. I would easily give that to him if he finishes the year strong. If we give him a 1 year deal he may be worth the Vasilevski contract, and we would have absolutely no leverage if we want to keep him.

Well - if Demko does finish the season continuing with this level of play, he’ll easily be worth it, IMO. He’s just entering his prime, and securing such goaltending for the long term will be crucial. Just as crucial as getting the Pettersson and Hughes contracts done.

 

[Peen]

If he continues as he has, he’ll easily be in the 6x6 with full NMC area established by Markstrom and Binnington, IMO.

Markstrom had numerous starter seasons and a heck of a lot more games played.

This is Thatcher’s first season. How many goalies under 100 GP have got contracts worth 7.4% of the cap?

Schneider is the last one who got a really big deal but he had come off a .915, .929, and .936. He got 6.7% on a three year deal. Schneider was the most attractive young goalie in the entire league though.

I just don’t see the precedent for Thatcher getting a $36MM contract.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Markstrom had numerous starter seasons and a heck of a lot more games played.

This is Thatcher’s first season. How many goalies under 100 GP have got contracts worth 7.4% of the cap?

Schneider is the last one who got a really big deal but he had come off a .915, .929, and .936. He got 6.7% on a three year deal. Schneider was the most attractive young goalie in the entire league though.

I just don’t see the precedent for Thatcher getting a $36MM contract.

Agreed..without the history or precedent to back it up..I don’t see 6x6...

 

[Peen]

Agreed..without the history or precedent to back it up..I don’t see 6x6...

This isn’t a contract without its risks either.

1. Thatcher has a concussion history - though obviously none of us know the severity of it.

2. There’s huge variability in the goalie coach department and you have to wonder about how Thatcher’s game will be affected by the potential departure of Clark. Who’s coming in and how will that affect Demko?

3. How many goalies have we seen show promise and naively people assume continuity in development just for the goalies to prove to not be as good as initially thought?

Unrelated to the risks from team perspective, but there’s also good reason for Thatcher to take a long term deal after Bettman said the cap will be flat for a long period of time. The security seems valuable. He hasn’t made a lot of money in his career to date.

This should be a deal with more upside for the team than the player.

 

[4Twenty]

Markstrom had numerous starter seasons and a heck of a lot more games played.

This is Thatcher’s first season. How many goalies under 100 GP have got contracts worth 7.4% of the cap?

Schneider is the last one who got a really big deal but he had come off a .915, .929, and .936. He got 6.7% on a three year deal. Schneider was the most attractive young goalie in the entire league though.

I just don’t see the precedent for Thatcher getting a $36MM contract.

The move is to go 6 for $32m. It's basically the Binnington 2 year deal plus a 4x6 after....combine it now and you're saving cap space. You wait until after the 2-3 year bridge and the finances of the league turning around, he might be Bobrovsky/Price/Vasilevski number which would absolutely sink the teams cap space when they hope to be in their peak.

It's a risk for sure, but it's also a risk on a quite reasonable bet for 26-32 years of age instead of 29-35.

I agree he hasn't done it over a long enough sample, but that's partly because the Canucks kind of dropped the ball on his development/integration in the NHL.

Is getting him on 2 year cheap deal really worth it, when the window isn't even supposed to be open, as per the GM of the team?

I'm not even sure Demko would sign a long term one unless he was getting a big number anyways. Arbitration can use $6.25m x 4 Murray as a comp....get the 1-2 year deal and then you're UFA at 27.5 in your prime and will have your pick of destinations, assuming he continues to show as he has.

Definitely something that needs evaluation.

 

[VanJack]

Is Demko the best goalie in hockey right now? I mean who's been better over the past 15 games or so?

If the Canucks weren't so capped out with bad contracts, there'd be nothing to discuss. If he wants a long term deal, I'd come up with Markstrom-money. I mean the kid is still only 25....Barring injury, just how good will he be over the next five seasons?

But Demko is a UFA after two more seasons. If he and his agent want the big money, then he signs with the Canucks for two more seasons and then tests the UFA market. I'm afraid I'm not getting good vibes that Jimbo will get this contract right.

 

[Peen]

The move is to go 6 for $32m. It's basically the Binnington 2 year deal plus a 4x6 after....combine it now and you're saving cap space. You wait until after the 2-3 year bridge and the finances of the league turning around, he might be Bobrovsky/Price/Vasilevski number which would absolutely sink the teams cap space when they hope to be in their peak.

It's a risk for sure, but it's also a risk on a quite reasonable bet for 26-32 years of age instead of 29-35.

I agree he hasn't done it over a long enough sample, but that's partly because the Canucks kind of dropped the ball on his development/integration in the NHL.

Is getting him on 2 year cheap deal really worth it, when the window isn't even supposed to be open, as per the GM of the team?

I'm not even sure Demko would sign a long term one unless he was getting a big number anyways. Arbitration can use $6.25m x 4 Murray as a comp....get the 1-2 year deal and then you're UFA at 27.5 in your prime and will have your pick of destinations, assuming he continues to show as he has.

Definitely something that needs evaluation.

I had the same thought the other day of combining Binnington’s two bridge years plus the four years after but with a slight discount. Something around the $5MM number for six years makes more sense to me or it’s a one year deal.

 

[4Twenty]

I had the same thought the other day of combining Binnington’s two bridge years plus the four years after but with a slight discount. Something around the $5MM number for six years makes more sense to me or it’s a one year deal.

It's $5.33m cap hit....same as Luongo during the Presidents Trophy era.

$32m is a lot of investment to a guy with ~70ish NHL games to be sure.

2 years at $3m does nothing for the Canucks really. It's going to be a tough negotiation. I wish I could trust those operating on the teams behalf.