Markstrom, Canucks hold off on contract talks during pause

Jacob Markstrom and the Vancouver Canucks have postponed contract talks while the NHL is paused due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

The Canucks' No. 1 goalie, who can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, said Wednesday that there are other priorities at the moment.

"Hockey has become not so important with everything that's going on around the world," Markstrom said. "Obviously I would have liked to have had a long-term deal and know what I'm going to do for the next few years here, but that's not the case right now. Nobody knows what's going to happen with this year. Hopefully we'll get back playing, and even next year and [NHL salary] cap hits and all that stuff, hockey is kind of secondary."

The 30-year-old was negotiating with the Canucks before the season was paused March 12. He is in the final year of a three-year contract with an annual-average value of $3.67 million he signed July 7, 2016.

"In my mind, I want to stay in Vancouver. In my mind, that's my goal," Markstrom said. "The season isn't over this year. I'm still hoping we can come back and play and make a push in the [Stanley Cu Playoffs] here and give the people of Vancouver ... it's going to be tough to get fans in the building, but to give the people and the city of Vancouver something to cheer for. So that's pretty much 100 percent of my mindset, that I'm still a Vancouver Canuck and am super proud to be that. I have no plans to leave."

If the season does resume, Markstrom said his knee injury is fully healed and he's ready to play. He was injured during the second period of a 9-3 win against the Boston Bruins on Feb. 22, had a minor procedure Feb. 27 and missed eight games before the pause.

"I'm fully healed, and it was a lot quicker than we thought," he said. "I didn't want to miss games, especially down the stretch, and it was bad timing for the injury, but after we got it done, the surgeon did a great job and the Vancouver medical team and the strength and conditioning coaching there did a great job, and I was back in probably three and a half weeks, I was back to skating fully on the ice."

Markstrom said at first he didn't think the injury was serious and he finished the game.

"I kind of felt it a little bit in the second period and it felt OK and we went in for intermission, and coming out for the third period, it felt a little stiffer than it should feel like," he said. "And with maybe 10, 15 minutes left, I told [defenseman Alexander] Edler he needs to start blocking some shots here because the knee isn't feeling too good.

"I wasn't sure what it was, either. It was nothing major and we could fix it all up, so I'm feeling great now. Obviously the timing wasn't the best. We were pushing and we were in a good spot for the playoffs."

Markstrom is 23-16-4 with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. The Canucks (36-27-6) are tied with the Nashville Predators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Markstrom said he had planned his return for March 20 at the Anaheim Ducks or March 21 at the Los Angeles Kings.

"Obviously it didn't happen, but we kind of kept that schedule and really [pushed] it and I don't think I had a bad day with the rehab," he said.

Markstrom has returned to Sweden during the pause but said he is not among those players skating there. Instead, he said he is focusing his training on issues important to goalies.

"We try to do ... hockey-related workouts," he said. "We've got a tennis ball machine, firing tennis balls, stuff like that. We're doing our best here, working on a lot of stuff on hand-eye with all kinds of racket sports. Just don't let your eyes fall asleep is a big thing."