Just curious what’s everyone’s thoughts?
Obviously he’s still relatively young, has a pretty significant history of injuries so far but skill and talent wise where do you guys have him?
And no, I’m not saying he is better than Luongo.
Have we been able to see his true capability? As we also need to consider the fact that the blue line has been awful the past few seasons until this year.
His numbers this year were incredible posting a
2.45 GAA and a .918 SV%.
Luongo posted 2.11 GAA and a 9.28 SV% in the 2010-11 season while playing 9 more games than Demmer as a comparison.
He’s arguably already in the Top 3 goalies in franchise history for me.
by Kraxzerr
30 Comments
Definitely top 5. Luongo to me is still the goat until someone wins a cup.
He’s absolutely in the top 5. He’s one of three goalies in Canucks history to get a Vezina nomination.
It’s too early (and he’s too injury-prone) to put him in the top 3 as things stand but I could see a world where he ends up as the 2nd best goalie in franchise when his career here ends.
He needs to prove that he can stay healthy
Would help to see how he does in the playoffs.
This could have been the year. Sadly…. We will have to wait until next year to see.
You’d have to make a stronger argument, at this point, for him “not” to be included.
Top 5 isn’t exactly a high bar in Vancouver. Who would he be knocking out of the top 5? Cloutier?
Top 5 goalie, top 3 talent, and a lot of time for him to climb those ranks
On talent and ability, absolutely. But he’s got to play a few more seasons I think before he starts making any all time lists.
The question would be who is in the top 5? There’s the given of Luongo and Kirk, anything before Kirk is hard because most of us I would say aren’t that old, we were a revolving goaltender graveyard for awhile and no one else has had the longevity or the staying power name in Canucks lore.
Top 3 would be Lu, Demko, Kirk and then after that idk, Schneider? Lack? honestly can’t think of any big names
Probably the top 3 if he wasn’t injury prone. Please no more injuries.
Luongo
McLean
King Richard
Markstrom/Miller/Demko
Not yet. He needs to be consistent and healthy.
Also needs to learn how to grip his stick an not lose it every game b
Ugh seeing that save and how well he played in game 1 made it so heartbreaking to hear after that he got hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I love silovs and that was a great story, but I wish we could’ve seen Demko in these playoffs.
I don’t think he ever gets past Luongo, unless we win the cup and he’s a big part of it. Demko for 2025 Conn Smythe, let’s go!
It’s a shame Luongo is partially remembered for falling apart in crunch time, because he is far and away the greatest goalie this franchise has ever had.
Its Luongo, mclean, demko, markstrom, brodeur, imo. We won in spite of cloutier, not because of him. Lou, cup finals. Mclean, cup finals. Brodeur, cup finals. Demko – vezina nom. Markstrom was just consistently excellent for many years on a bad team. Schneids, maybe with longer tenure? But markstrom was better. Cloutier with playoff success might get some votes from those who didn’t watch a lot of him. I don’t think there’s really too many others to consider, tbh.
I think he is firmly 4th. A couple more seasons and I’ll probably have him ahead of Brodeur too, but to beat McLean and Luongo will require either more longevity or better playoff performances.
1. Luongo
2. McLean
3. Brodeur
4. Demko
5. Cloutier/Markstrom
It’s been a season…
Luongo by a million miles its not even close
McLean
Demko
Miller
Brodeur
Potvin
I am not big on Marksrom. He good years. Idk. I dont see consistency with him.
Some of you are sleepin on King Richard
As a goalie myself and big time goalie nerd. I love watching demko more than any other goalie. My jaw is usually on floor watching how smooth his movement is. The insane level of athleticism of demko is a real joy to watch every night.
Of course he has a lot to prove so he’s not knocking Lou out of top spot for me yet.
With the goalie graveyard we had for a while, Demmer’s already worked his way into the top 5 all time in Canucks goalie wins. If it wasn’t for injury, I think Demko would’ve made a run at passing Cloutier this season for third all-time.
When it’s all said and done, Demko’s going to make a compelling case to be #1. I can certainly see him solidifying his position as the #2 goalie all time in franchise history, but Lu’s absolutely earned the title of #1 goalie in franchise history to date.
No, I think he needs more playoff wins.
A top 5 could be rounded out by Silovs
I think Demko is in the top-3 conversation
N’yet. Top early. Just enjoy the process. When he retires, then start the conversation 👌
I feel bad cause goalies are never the same after injury but prime Demko was top 5 worthy
…..sure…if he plays.
I will not stand for this Arturs Irbe erasure!
Idk I have Alex Auld in my top 5 tho
Depends on your standard. Are you judging goaltenders based on their longevity with the Canucks? Their accomplishments? How deep they got in the playoffs?
I think the judgement ought to be “this goaltender versus other goaltenders at the time.” And I think it’s fair to require that they were actually with Vancouver for a significant time — I’m going to say 3 seasons minimum is a good requirement.
[Here’s a list of all the Canucks goaltenders and their stats](https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/VAN/goalies.html). Problem with a lot of these stats is they lack context — yeah, Kirk McLean’s SV% looks horrid in this day and age, but in the 90’s? Fortunately, there are two stats that tell a more complete picture in context — GA pct and GSAA. They track, respectively, the goals allowed percentage relative to the league, and the goals the goaltender prevented on average versus the league. Basically, both compare the SV% and GAA of the goaltender versus the rest of the league.
Only 25 goaltenders were with the Canucks for 3 or more years. Of them, only 13 played 100 or more games (but let’s let Cory Schneider sneak in with his 98 games played over 5 seasons). Going down the list of games played, we’ve got McLean, Luongo, Brodeur, Markstrom, Demko, Cloutier, Gary “Suitcase” Smith, Miller, Dunc Wilson, Glen Hanlon, Garth Snow, Frank Caprice, Corey Hirsch, and finally Cory Schneider. There’s a pretty solid amount of “who?” going on there.
Now, of those goaltenders, only three have a career GA pct better than 100 — in other words, only three had consistently better GAA numbers than the rest of the league. They are, in order, Schneider, Luongo, and Demko. Eddie Lack is also there, but he’s only got two seasons with the Canucks, with a total of 82 games played, and that makes it hard to see him as “top all time.”
Looking at GSAA — which is essentially a comparison of SV% vs league average — there are three standouts at the top. They are Luongo, Schneider, and Demko. All of them have a GSAA of 25 or more, with Luongo sporting a crazy 102.9.
The problem is, these stats are sort of overrating a guy like Schneider versus a guy like Kirk McLean. This is because Schneider was so sheltered and never played for a bad Canucks team. There are a few goaltenders who had great “flash in the pan” years. I’m talking years where they performed way better than their career average. We’re looking at Markstrom, Brodeur, McLean and even Cloutier.
Kirk McLean, career stats, was worse than average. But he had a couple great seasons (89-90 and 91-92) that stood out, where he finished 3rd and 2nd in Vezina voting, respectively. He also had one unreal playoff performance in 94. His career playoff stats are juicy, in fact. Markstrom had 7 years in Vancouver but only two really good ones. Cloutier had good stats in one year — 03-04 — but had miserable playoff stats. Richard Brodeur had basically one great year in Vancouver — 81-82 — where he was good in the regular season and great in the playoffs. Otherwise, he was average-to-below average.
Luongo, surprisingly, was not a playoff performer, with the exception of his first year in 07 and arguably 2011. The 2011 playoffs were stacked with excellent goaltenders who made deep runs, so his numbers were slightly below average for the playoffs, but still solid.
So with all this in mind, here’s where I land.
First has to be Luongo. He’s, without question, the best goaltender the Canucks have had. Consistently above league-average in stats, carried his team at times. He’s slightly hindered by a few bad playoff performances, but no one else even comes close to how good he was for Vancouver.
After Luongo, you’ve got some mix of Schneider, McLean, Demko, Brodeur and maybe Markstrom. Markstrom had a couple very good seasons with Vancouver but was a mixed bag so it’s hard to say. I put McLean second based purely off of playoff performances. Outside of a couple great regular season performances, he was generally an average-to-below-average goaltender who got hot when it counted, in the playoffs. Brodeur, you’re really only looking at a single great season. So really, it’s a question of Schneider versus Demko. I really like Schneider but it’s hard to call him a top goaltender all time in Vancouver when he was never really the starter. Demko, on the other hand, is putting up great numbers — Luongo-esque — but has played only half the games. I’ve got little doubt he’ll be in the top 2 by the end of his career.
So in my mind, it goes: Luongo, McLean, Demko, Markstrom, Schneider, Brodeur.
Yes for sure, he’s been on a weak team for his entire career. Look at his season with a good team this year.