A Goalie Was Never Part of Devils and Flames Deal As Retention Remains The Issue
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play Segment with Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron as he was asked about the goaltending market, specifically about the New Jersey Devils and Calgary Flames deal for Jacob Markstrom, and can be revisited.
** NHLRumors.com Transcription
NHL Rumors: Salary Retention on Jacob Markstrom an Issue for a New Jersey Devils-Calgary Flames Deal
Martin Biron: “Okay, so I’ll move to the goalie. I mentioned Linus Ullmark earlier when looking at the goalie markets, and Jacob Markstrom is really the only one that is significant for me to say a team needs a goalie. He has two years left at $6 million, so is it going to get done or is it not a right time place market for Calgary to get it done? I think they should, but if he’s the only one and if he hasn’t, there is no movement clause with certain teams on there and whatever. Like, is that gonna complicate things too much?”
Dave Pagnotta: “You mean Ullmark with Calgary?”
Biron: “No. no, I’m saying like Markstrom can be traded. I threw Ullmark’s name in there. Maybe that would help Calgary if there was another goalie that, you know, teams would be looking at and whatnot, like maybe create a goalie market. There’s no goalie market right now because I feel like it’s only Markstrom, and that’s it.”
NHL Rumors: Jacob Markstrom is a Perfect Fit for the Devils
Pagnotta: “Yeah, and well, Juuse Saros‘s name is still out there, too. He’s there. You have John Gibson. You have (Elvis) Merzlikins still. Those are out there as well.
But I can tell you in trying to dissect what the heck has happened between New Jersey and Calgary. My initial belief was Vitek Vanecek was going to be going back as part of this to help offset the money. That’s not the case. The retention was the, was the primary point. The reason that’s not the case is Calgary feels like if they do move Markstrom, they want to move forward with Wolf and Vladar as the goaltending duo.
I don’t believe that they’ll look elsewhere to bring in someone, at least unless something has changed in the last little bit; it certainly sounds like the deal involving Markstrom to New Jersey did not include another goaltender coming back to Calgary because they want to move forward if they do move Markstrom, then they want to move forward with Wolf and Dan Vladar as the duo and see how that performs.
NHL Rumors: Jacob Markstrom Trade To New Jersey is Complicated
So I think if they do move out if this does happen, and I do believe that New Jersey is going to circle back with Calgary to try to get this done, we know that obviously now that retention was a big part of it. I think they’re going to try to massage that a little bit, so it is not as big of a hit as what was initially proposed. They were right there. That deal was ready to happen, and at the last minute, they kind of pulled out. I don’t think goaltending is going to be an issue as part of that.
If you’re looking at other options, if it is, you know, teams that are exploring New Jersey are certainly going to look at alternative options here. The guys that I mentioned, you mentioned Ullmark. I think Boston is going to explore that in the summer with him on an expiring deal at that point. Then that can spice things up summertime.”