With retool in full swing, moving Markstrom made sense for Flames

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In the end, it just didn’t make a lot of sense for the Calgary Flames to keep Jacob Markstrom.

The star goaltender was traded to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday morning in exchange for young defenceman Kevin Bahl and a top-10-protected pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, ending months of speculation about Markstrom’s future.

Markstrom never requested a trade. He insisted Wednesday that he didn’t narrow his list of potential destinations to the Devils alone.

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But it’s clear for a Flames team that is “retooling” and isn’t expected to contend for the Stanley Cup any time soon, it didn’t make sense to keep a goaltender in his mid-30s who is nearing the end of the prime of his career.

So the Flames got younger, while retaining 31.25% of Markstrom’s $6-million salary-cap hit for the remaining two years on his contract, which works out to $1.875 million annually.

“Jacob has been an amazing goaltender for us and he had an amazing year last year and I think just from his side, probably, and our side, a 34-year-old goalie and us in this retool moving forward, this was something that worked for both sides,” said Flames general manager Craig Conroy.

Markstrom’s name had been discussed in trade rumours for most of last season as Conroy dealt away a lengthy list of veteran soon-to-be free agents including Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov and, a year ago, Tyler Toffoli.

Conroy’s hand was somewhat forced by those players looking to move on in free agency. The result was a team that got significantly younger, richer in draft picks and, ultimately, moved further away from contending for a Stanley Cup,

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Markstrom is an elite goalie and the Flames will miss him, even if they’re comfortable in their tandem of Dan Vladar and the emerging Dustin Wolf between the pipes for next season.

But moving him to a team like the Devils where his skill set should help push them further towards contention in the Eastern Conference only made sense.

The Flames signed Markstrom to a six-year contract in October 2020, when the likes of Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk had Calgary seemingly on the brink of being one of the NHL’s best teams.

They’re not in that position anymore, so it was inevitable that Markstrom needed to be moved to make way for the next era.

And while the Devils always seemed like the frontrunner to land his services, Markstrom was clear that he didn’t tell the Flames that New Jersey was the only place he’d go.

“This was a trade Calgary liked and wanted to do,” Markstrom said Wednesday. “There were more teams interested. Calgary made this trade and it’s not like it was one team and that was it. Calgary wanted this (trade) and obviously I had the last say with the no-move clause. When they agreed to a deal with Jersey, I was super excited about it.”

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In return for Markstrom, the Flames received another first-round draft pick and, in Bahl, a young, 6-foot-6 defenceman who already has 148 games of NHL experience despite being only 23 years old.

They now have six first-round picks in the next three drafts and are expecting Bahl to be a part of their everyday roster.

Was it a surefire grand slam of a deal? Only time will tell, but Conroy evaluated the options that were available to him and ultimately chose the deal he felt was best.

And Markstrom was certainly not the only elite goalie on the market. Shortly after the Flames and Devils completed their deal, the Los Angeles Kings acquired netminder Darcy Kuemper from the Washington Capitals for forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, and there are rumours that the Boston Bruins would consider offers for Linus Ullmark and the Nashville Predators would be open to moving Juuse Saros.

It probably wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s a bit of a buyer’s market when it comes to goaltenders this summer.

“When I talked to New Jersey five to seven days ago it got a little bit more serious and then the last couple days it really picked up,” Conroy said. “There are other goalies on the market and I do feel like there was some, you know, they were going to make a decision one way or another. It was either go with us or go with another team and we just had to make sure we were comfortable with the return.

“We thought this was the best thing for the Calgary Flames and in the end we were able to work something out fairly quickly. It’s not like we just did it in a day, but it definitely got to the point where we felt it could work for both sides and then we were able to get it done.”

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