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The quiet trade deadline day for the Vancouver Canucks ended with some abhorrent news, and it wasn’t even on the trade front.
As the clock stuck zero on the deadline, reports surfaced that Jacob Markstrom has a torn meniscus. While the team announced that Markstrom left practice because of a “maintenance day,” we now know that the Canucks MVP could be missing a considerable amount of time.
Donnie and the Moj hearing Markstrom could be out anywhere from 3-4 weeks with knee injury.#TSN1040
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) February 24, 2020
In light of that, the Canucks traded for Louis Domingue from the New Jersey Devils, in exchange for AHL netminder Zane McIntyre.
Domingue has suited up in 16 games for the lowly Devils this seasons, posting a horrid .879 save percentage along with a 3-8-2 record.
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Seriously, this guy has played more than Cory Schneider?
* Checks and sees that Schneider is 0-6-1 with an .852 save percentage this season. *
Okay then.
Demko Time
If Markstrom does miss an extended period of time, then this is clearly a monumental challenge for the Canucks current back up (and perhaps still their goalie of the future) in Demko.
His initial numbers of 10-6-2 in 20 games with a 3.05 GAA and a .905 save percentage don’t scream “goaltender who will propel his team to the playoffs.” However, as it is in most scenarios, there’s more to see past the initial numbers.
Demko’s quality start percentage (percent of games in which he’s performed about the league average in save percentage) is 66.7%. The league average is 53% and anything above 60% is considered good.
The point is, when Demko has been bad (or unlucky), the floodgates have opened. That was true in games against Colorado, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and most recently in Anaheim. He gave up five or more goals in all of those games.
In general though, Demko has performed well in his rookie season. He absolutely stole the Canucks a game during one of his last starts against the St. Louis Blues. We also had Cat Silverman on the Silky N’ Filthy podcast a couple of weeks back, and she spoke about how Demko is on a solid NHL trajectory after finding some success in his rookie season.
However, his greatest NHL test is still to come.
If you don’t believe in Demko, perhaps you need to give this episode a listen.