Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Oh My Bob episode, on Calgary Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom and three teams who are in the marketing for a goaltender.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “The one thing that everybody wants as well. One thing that everybody is, well a lot of teams anyhow are looking for, is netminding.
So much of the conversation there has for the past six months I suppose, maybe longer, revolved around Jacob Markstrom and the Calgary Flames. Is there a latest on Jacob Markstrom and the Calgary Flames?”
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Friedman: “I think the thing is here is that it was so crazy during the season, Calgary is trying to do this as quietly as possible. And that’s not going to be easy. I mean, good luck with that this time of the year.”
Marek: “Put this on the pod, put anything on the podcast and they’re trying to do this quietly.”
Friedman: “But they just know what a roller coaster was for everybody involved including the player and themselves. And I think they’re, they’re really, really trying to avoid it. But there’s definitely something going on.
I mean New Jersey, Fitzgerald is on record as saying he will consider moving his 10th overall pick and I know a lot of people are looking at in goal. A couple of other teams I wonder about there too, you know, anybody looking for a goalie but a couple of teams I wonder about.
Toronto and I know deals with Toronto and Calgary are kind of complicated but the GM in Toronto is the guy who signed Markstrom in Calgary. And just on paper, a Markstrom-Woll combination is a pretty good combination. So I, I look at that and I say I could see why a team like Toronto would be interested in that potentially.
And the other team that I think is in on almost every goalie conversation is Ottawa. Now I don’t know how Markstrom feels about that. But I was told like every conversation that involves a goalie, you have to have Ottawa around it.
Now the thing about Markstrom is trading for him, he’s basically a two times six player you’re trading for (two years at $6 million per). And if your choice is trading for a goalie, especially him with that contract or going out or signing someone in free agency, that might be a bigger number, you’re very happy to take that.
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So I could understand why there’d be a lot of interest in Markstrom. But obviously a lot of people are suspecting New Jersey, and there’s a few teams that suspect Toronto and Ottawa as well, would be around that it. Plus you know, I mean, Toronto kicks tires on everybody so it makes sense, but, you know, some teams wonder if it ends up being a bit more than that.”