Markstrom has been trash this year. We've won almost no close games. Pressure is on and he lets in beach balls. He was atrocious last night. Don't know how anyone can say otherwise. I've been saying it all season, if you can get out from that contract you do it. If someone is crazy enough to offer a first because his stats are good, you make that deal now.
Hmm... I get where you're coming from, but I sorta disagree.
Pure gut feeling... IMO, Markstrom is more along the lines of a Corey Crawford that the Hawks won cups with. Doesn't often steal you too many extra games, but steady enough that he's reliable and it offsets the overall amounts of bad games. Not a hot/cold type goalie and his ups and downs are pretty consistent with the ups and downs of the team in front of him. He's also perhaps a reliable systems goalie (and not all goalies are good systems goalies). He's not like someone like MAF/Murray, Quick, Kipper, Gibson, Helly, Vasi etc. that steals a ton of games the team had no business winning.
Chasing contention with Markstrom is doable albeit not as sexy as getting someone else who can truly steal games. You don't get as many shut outs as Markstrom by being trash.
Does BT even have a plan? Or is it just ride Sutter and hope we can make a miracle run in the playoffs? This team is built so weirdly IMO, winger-heavy with no top centre or defenseman.
Honestly speaking, BT's plan feels like the Panthers lite. However, BT put his plan in motion earlier, but had less resources to work with to bring it to fruition. The Panthers have the extra elite talent to put the plan into motion via draft (ie: Barkov + Ekblad).
Metaphorically, the Calgary Flames IMO feel like the Oakland A's of Moneyball. Panthers feeling like the Red Sox of Moneyball.
