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I have hated the Markstrom contract before it was signed, at the time it was signed, now, and probably in the future. I expected him to put up great numbers (even Vezina worthy) the first 2 years, and then bad numbers in the following 4 years. I criticized the contract because you can't have an $6 million anchor for 4 years.

So far, Markstrom has performed well below my expectations. If he's putting up 90.3% in his prime, what is he going to do at 34, 35, 36 and 37 years old?
He's 31 and his career save percentage is 91%. Does anyone here actually think his save percentage will be higher than that when the contract ends?

The league average this year is only 90.7%. Markstrom stat's are bad. But they're not that far below average. Interestingly, of the top 11 highest paid goalies in the league, only Vasilevsky, Fleury, and Hellebuyck have save percentages that are above league average.
I think the biggest problem is that he shouldn't be playing so much. I still believe that Markstrom can end the season at 91.0%+ with Sutter as coach. But if he's going to do that, he can't continue to play more than 75% of the games.

And I know many of you are going to blame the team's performance for Markstrom's bad save percentage. That's true, and that's while I think it'll improve under Sutter. But Rittich has a higher save percentage playing in front of the same team. There's no reason Rittich should be sitting out for 6 games in a row.

Give Markstrom some rest. I bet his stat's will improve and then I can calm down with criticism for his long contract.