The Calgary Flames continue to be the talk of the town when it comes to trade rumours and when future trades are going to get made.
On Saturday Headlines, Elliotte Friedman outlined that the Flames’ key UFAs are still the key players holding up the rest of the trade market, and revealed that the team’s MVP this season has indeed had trade discussion ramp up around him.
Notes on the Calgary Flames from Saturday Headlines
What was initially a joke on Thursday night when the Flames were playing New Jersey, turns out the Devils’ interest in Jacob Markstrom is not only serious but was heating up before the game:
“The Flames and the Devils played earlier this week, the Flames beat them, and from what I understand the two teams are not commenting in the lead-up to that game the two teams had legit conversations about the Calgary goalie. Now there is a couple things I want to make clear here, number one I don’t know if this was ever taken to Markstrom, and I don’t know if he got involved, but I do think the two teams talked about it quite seriously and I think there was a couple of issues.
One of course would be the package to get him the other was retention. Now is it still possible? I just heard it was really tough to do, really difficult, and it stopped in its tracks. But the two sides did talk, I believe there were some serious conversations and we’ll see if it picks up.”
– Elliotte Friedman
Now up until this point, the talk around Markstrom was that the team was not shopping Markstrom nor was anything subtatnia. This proves that the Flames are truly doing whatever they can to capitalize on specific players’ seasons.
An in-season Markstrom trade would be very hard to pull off, and it is most likely something the team will look at in the summer, but it’s not impossible. The Devils are in serious need of a goalie, but the Flames are also going to demand a king’s ransom as well as wanting to rid themselves of the entire salary cap hit.
If Markstrom continues to play as well as he is, you can bet that the Devils or another team will circle to see if the deal can get done.
Friedman also noted in his segment that the trade market is currently being held up by the pending moves of Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel, and Adam Henrique. The Flames may have just won their fourth straight game, but their front-office work is just heating up.
