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Canucks’ Markstrom Ready to Go, Will He Have Games To Play In?

According to Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning, goaltender Jacob Markstrom has fully recovered from his knee injury and is ready to get back to NHL action. The only problem is, there’s no NHL action to get back to.

According to Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning, goaltender Jacob Markstrom has fully recovered from his knee injury and is ready to get back to NHL action. The only problem is, there’s no NHL action to get back to.

For the Canucks, there may not be either, as the NHL regular season looks less and less likely to resume.

The Canucks are one of those teams on the bubble of the NHL playoffs. They’re also rumored to be one of the teams throwing ideas at Gary Bettman in the hopes that should hockey kick back in, there’s a way to get the Canucks involved. So far, the NHL has not made any announcements on that front.

Should there not be a resumption of the NHL’s regular season and the standings are what they are, the questions will then turn to the Canucks ability to keep Markstrom, and if so, how much it will cost?

Extending Markstrom isn’t necessarily a matter of black and while. With so much salary cap uncertainty heading into next season, there’s no feasible way to know what the NHL GM’s will have at their disposable. There’s not really even a hint at this point, only news that the owners are getting together on Monday in a conference call to talk about financial contingency plans, should the season delay last a lot longer.

If the salary cap stays flat, there’s only so much money to pay Markstrom with. Benning spoke about this while on Sportsnet 650 (audio link) and reiterated his desire to get the pending UFA signed to a contract extension, but stressed concerns in doing that now with no concrete projections.

For the foreseeable future, signing Markstrom will have to wait. And, in the meantime, it seems like the Canuck’s netminder will have a lot more time to rest and rehab that injury.

Related: NHL Owners To Hold Conference Call, Another Senators’ Player Tests Positive

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