The Vancouver Canucks won’t re-sign Jacob Markstrom, but they’ll bring in a Vezina Trophy winner to replace him. The team is expected to sign Braden Holtby to a two-year contract worth a total of $8.6M, according to several reports, including Dan Murphy of Sportsnet.
Holtby joins Thatcher Demko in Vancouver’s net on an extremely reasonable contract that won’t hamstring the Canucks as they move forward. In fact, given that the team will likely protect Demko in the Seattle expansion draft, it will be interesting to see if Holtby even plays out the full two-year term in Vancouver.
For now though, Holtby joins a team that already went deep into the playoffs and has some of the best young players in the NHL. Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will only improve in the coming years and now have a goaltender behind them who has won almost everything possible in the NHL.
A Vezina, Jennings and Stanley Cup winner, Holtby has put up a .916 save percentage in 468 regular-season appearances. That number dropped dramatically in 2019-20, but having just turned 31 there are many who believe Holtby can bounce-back.
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