Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show on Friday on what the challenges are for the New Jersey Devils and the Calgary Flames on a Jacob Markstrom trade. Is the issue with a potential trade the cost of retention and not the retention itself?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Friedman: “Look, I don’t think they should be going after rental goalies. But the Markstrom’s and the Saros’ of the world, they should be going, they should be really, and we know they try hard with Markstrom.
And I want to say one thing about Calgary. I don’t believe the issue is Calgary not wanting to retain money. I don’t think that’s the problem here. I think the issue is the price of retention. And, like that’s, that’s it, like it’s an interesting one to me.
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Like basically there’s a chart. Like if we’re retaining this much, this is what it’s worth. And yes, you try to negotiate a better deal for yourself. And you, you sit there and you say, well, maybe the chart says third-rounder, but we maybe we can and try get a second-rounder.
Like this is different. like a lot of time that chart is about, like just a player that’s coming up at the end of the year and you only have to eat a little bit of money. Like this one with Markstrom it’s gonna be a few years.
So I don’t think Calgary, I think Calgary is asking for a higher price. And I think that’s where the challenge is. Not in Calgary is unwilling to retain but the two sides disagreeing on what the price is for that retention.
The problem right now if you’re the Devils is, sometimes you have the hammer, and sometimes you don’t. The Devils for a long time kind of had the hammer, they can say we don’t believe we want to pay a ton for goaltending.
You don’t necessarily think, with a lot of, the Devils I think are pretty smart with the way that they use analytics. I think they’re good at it. And a lot of the very analytically inclined thinking teams, they say don’t believe you should pay a lot for goaltending. And my line is, you don’t think you should pay a lot for it until you absolutely need it. Well, the devils are in that space right now.”