Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
Too early to say either way, but we shouldn't discount keeping both and moving Markstrom in 2 years.
In two years Vladar will be 27, Wolf will be 23, and Markstrom will be 34 and turning 35 in the January of that season.
If you could move the 2 x $6M that Markstrom would have left and move forward with the tandom of the two younger goalies that seems like the right long term move. Especially if Wolf and Vladar continue to impress.
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There's a big difference between starting 20 games and playing 50+ with regularity like Markstrom does.
It's great that Vladar is proving to be highly competent as a backup for a workhorse goalie, but as we've seen before many, many times - backups like this can have a very hard time transitioning to being the guy and even upping the workload from 20-40 starts. Vladar had some issues down the stretch last season that don't exactly instill the utmost confidence that he's able to play more, and at a high level until he proves otherwise. What we are seeing thus far is only preseason hockey.
Make no mistake, Markstrom is the guy for this team for the next 3 years at least. It
likely means moving on from Vladar next year and slowly ratcheting up Wolf to be able to handle a large NHL workload during that time. Unless of course Vladar end up playing 30-40 games for some reason this year and absolutely show that everyday starter potential, there's not a huge reason yet to bank on him as a long term answer in net.