There was talk of Anders Nilsson and Jacob Markstrom having a “healthy competition” for the job of starting goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks just a year ago. With Nilsson gone via trade midway through this past season, 2014 second-round pick Thatcher Demko is ready to be the Canucks’ backup for a full season.
Just yesterday, in the latest addition to my “how bad is it?” series, I looked at the goaltending situation. As I mentioned in that article, Markstrom was performing well above league average from December to the end of the season in terms of save percentage.