Demko and Gibson to be dealt in offseason.

 Demko and Gibson to headline goalie market. 

In today’s blog post we are looking at the Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks as this is personally my speculation and I haven't heard anything about these two things, but there has been a lot of talk that the goaltending market is shrinking and I feel that we could see two solid goalies be moved in the offseason.

Now according to a couple of recent reports I've seen, the best UFA goaltenders on the market are Devils goalie Jake Allen as well as Carolina Hurricanes goalie Frederick Andersen and those guys I think in my opinion at least are tandem goaltenders at best, as with Andersen’s injury history, even though he's had some really good stretches with Carolina his injury history and inconsistent playoff runs makes him I think more of a tandem level goaltender than a pure starter and Allen I think is a good 1A goaltender, but don't think he's a pure starter either.

So for teams who really need to upgrade their goaltending and try and go after a solid level starter, I think they'll turn to the trade market as we saw a couple of really big level guys get moved in the offseason last year as we saw Ullmark get dealt as well as Markstrom get dealt and a couple of other guys also got dealt, so I think the two names in the goaltending market this year that I personally think will headline it and potentially get dealt will be Thatcher Demko in Vancouver and John Gibson in Anaheim, now I personally think these two guys are bound to get moved and it may very likely happen soon. 

Now in Anaheim, it sounds like Gibson is very unhappy with his current situation as the Ducks are still not a playoff team at this point in time, Gibson I think has two years left on his deal at $6.4 million after this year and I think in my opinion at least and maybe it has happened also, Dostal has become the starter in Anaheim, so I don't think Gibson is really quite fond of being a tandem goaltender or  potentially even being a 1B and I don't think he's overly fond of being on a team that's not making the playoffs right now, so I think moving Gibson might be the best scenario, now I could see a similar scenario to what the Bruins got for Ullmark or what the Flames got for Markstrom as they got a first round pick, a decent young NHL player who's not really a superstar level guy and something else, so I think that could wind up being given to the Anaheim Ducks in a similar package, so I think maybe a first round pick, a mid-level prospect or a lower-end roster player and maybe something else could be given for Gibson and I  think that could be a potential return for Gibson.

Ron Chenoy Imagn Images

As for Demko, he's got one more season left after this year at a $5 million cap hit, now after the contract signed by Kevin Lankinen and with youngster Silovs still doing well in the minors, I think they'll most likely run with a tandem of those two guys next year, now I think they could wind up maybe moving Silovs to the minors for one more season if they wanted to run with a Demko-Lankinen tandem next year, but I think there's a very good chance we could see a Demko move in season as he's had so much injury troubles that I do think he will wind up getting moved, now I could see him be similar to what the Ullmark deal was because he has had also injury history, now Demko hasn't played to that level so I could see maybe like a second round pick, a decent prospect and maybe something else be had for Demko and I think Demko could strengthen a team's goaltending position and be a solid starter.

Now I'm not sure exactly what teams could try and acquire these guys because I think most teams actually have their starters already for next year as they’ve already signed them, but a couple of teams that come to mind would be maybe the Edmonton Oilers as if they do wind up trying to move off of Skinner if he doesn't have an overly great playoff run this year for the Oilers, I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the Gibson or Demko sweepstakes, another team would be Detroit as I'm not sure if they have an abundance of confidence in Mrazek and Talbot going forward, so I wouldn't be surprised if they maybe moved off one of those guys and try to bring in a actual starting level goaltender,  maybe Columbus if they do decide to move off of Merzlikins, maybe Pittsburgh if they decide to move off of Tristan Jarry and I’m sure there's a couple of other teams who I could see maybe try and add a starter in the offseason, so we're going to have to wait and see what happens there.

So personally I do think that most teams trying to look for goaltending upgrades in the offseason will have to go through the trade market as they aren’t a abundance of potential free agent options this year and I do think that Demko in Vancouver and Gibson in Anaheim are the two main guys who could wind up being dealt this offseason so we will have to wait and see but it is definitely something to keep out eyes on.