NHL Rumors: New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights, and the Calgary Flames

The Devils may now say they don’t need any Jacob Markstrom salary retained, and Markstrom is not happy with management

Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: The New Jersey Devils went back to the Calgary Flames this week and believes they now said they would do a Jacob Markstrom trade without the Flames needing to retain salary. Markstrom’s deal runs through 2025-26 and is at $6 million per.

It’s a tough spot for Flames GM Craig Conroy as his team has been battling hard. The sides could revisit things in the offseason but that may open up more options for the Devils.

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Eric Francis: Jacob Markstrom when asked about the trade speculation and if he’s resigned to being with the Flames past the trade deadline.

“Everyone in here I really respect everything that’s been going on, and not going on, and how everyone in this room has handled everything. I think it’s been really good. And then the whole situation and everything, am I happy about that? No I’m not. I think it could have been handled a lot different from up top.”

Does Noah Hanifin make sense for the Vegas Golden Knights?

Daily Faceoff: Frank Seravalli on if defenseman Noah Hanifin makes sense for the Vegas Golden Knights.

“I know everyone’s been thinking winger for the Golden Knights, and rightfully so with Mark stones injury. But I think Hanifin does make a lot of sense there.

Now, they would again remain a really top heavy team in terms of what they’re paying their upper-echelon players if they were to get Hanifin and keep him.

But a reminder that Alec Martinez is $5 million bucks is coming off the books. And Martinez has been serviceable this year. In fact, he’s probably given the Golden Knights even more than they, they might have expected. They still have $5 million to play with. And that’s a huge part of Hanifin’s next deal.

NHL Rumors: Noah Hanifin Deal More Complicated Than First Thought

So that is a possibility and fitting in Hanifin this year wouldn’t be a challenge, given that his cap hit isn’t very high and the Flames could retain and you could always get a third-party broker and the Golden Knights might have a ton of cap space to play with, with (Mark) Stone’s injury.