In today’s 32 Thoughts podcast—the last Monday edition before the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline—Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek took a look at the latest news around the NHL heading into the big week. In the Calgary Flames and New Jersey segments, they offered some pretty significant updates on the Flames and where things stand heading into Friday’s 1 p.m. MST trade deadline.
The Flames weren’t happy with Jacob Markstrom’s comments
To kick off the Flames segment of the podcast, Friedman of course started with the Markstrom situation given his recent comments. Friedman noted that the Flames were very unhappy with the timing of Markstrom’s comments given he made them right before Miikka Kiprusoff’s retirement ceremony in what should’ve been a weekend fully focused on Kiprusoff.
Friedman also added that the Flames will sit down this week and discuss how they want to approach Markstrom’s situation now that Kipper night is over.
Markstrom is upset with how the N.J. trade talks were handled
Building off the Markstrom situation, Friedman shed some further light on just what made Markstrom so upset with the Flames and why he voiced his displeasure publicly.
I think he’s more upset because he feels that he should have never been told he could be traded to New Jersey. I think that’s what this is all about. If it wasn’t gonna happen, then he feels he shouldn’t have even been told about it and he didn’t want to know about it.
Elliotte Friedman on Markstrom’s frustrations with the Flames
When you have a partner or you’re married and you have children, you’re sitting there and you’re saying I can’t be completely irresponsible, I actually have to consider other people with my actions, and I don’t think he liked that, I don’t think he liked the stress.
Overall, this isn’t a great look for the Flames organization. Asking a player with a family if he’d be willing to move to a new city and team only to at the last minute change your mind and hold onto said player is a complete mismanagement of the situation. Given Markstrom has a wife and kids and likely thought he was relocating his family to New Jersey, it’s easy to understand why he was so upset when he found out the Flames had changed their mind and decided not to trade him.
Calgary backed out of the Markstrom deal to make a push for the playoffs
Friedman also offered up a rather interesting note on why the Flames may have backed out of the Markstrom trade with N.J. at the last minute. For a while, it was believed it was an issue of retention that caused the deal to fall apart, but Friedman brought up that someone told him that may not be the only reason.
I know a lot of people, including myself have believed the deal fell apart over retention or what Calgary considered the proper price for retention. On Saturday someone else said to me that they heard that it wasn’t even [retention] so much as Calgary just saw how Markstrom was going and how the team was starting to go and they just said, look we can make the playoffs and we aren’t doing this.
Elliotte Friedman on Calgary backing out of the Markstrom deal
This is a tough one. On one hand, the Flames are still within striking distance of the playoffs and Markstrom has been the team’s MVP this season, but on the other hand, making long-term decisions based on a couple of weeks of hockey is never a good idea. We obviously don’t know what was offered up in the original deal, but this seems like a potential short-sighted mistake by Craig Conroy.
Regardless, it sounds like the Flames haven’t given up on making it into the final wild card spot and if they have it their way Markstrom won’t be traded this season.
Tampa Bay remains the frontrunner for Noah Hanifin
As we’ve heard over the past week or so, Friedman confirmed the Tampa Bay Lightning remain the frontrunner to land Noah Hanifin and are his top choice.
Hanifin is still focused on teams he wants to sign with, and I think the Flames are too. Number one on this list, and nobody has told me I’m wrong about this, is Tampa Bay. I believe the Lightning would like to do it. It tells me that there’s a deal to be made contract wise, there just hasn’t been a deal to be made trade wise. If it was that easy to do, it would be done already.
Elliotte Friedman on Hanifin trade talks
At this point, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Hanifin will end up in Tampa Bay. The big question remains and Friedman echoed this statement is what will Calgary get in return? Friedman alluded to there being no issues with Hanifin and Tampa Bay agreeing to an extension, but the Flames still haven’t received the return they’re looking for from Tampa Bay which has complicated things.
He also added on that if the Flames can’t get a deal done with Tampa Bay, Hanifin will have to extend his list of teams he’s willing to go to or the Flames will have to send him to whoever offers them the best deal.
Calgary made a last-ditch effort to sign Chris Tanev
Despite the constant trade rumours around Tanev all season, it sounds like the Flames made a push to re-sign him before he was ultimately traded. Friedman confirmed that Flames tried, but Tanev turned it down as it was already too far down the line and he was ready to move on. He also speculated the Flames likely offered Tanev a deal in the three-year, $4.5 million AAV range. All things considered, I think a trade was the correct route to go over a multi-year extension.
Calgary wanted to keep this group together and push for the playoffs
Lastly, Friedman closes off his Flames segment by making it clear the Flames were fully focused on getting to the playoffs this season and if they had it their way the roster from October would still be intact and they’d be going all in this season.
“Calgary has no inclination to [trade other core players]. In Calgary, the fact that they tried to extend Tanev and pulled Markstrom off the market and continued to try to get Hanifin done for awhile, that shows they agree with people who felt if they get into the playoffs they’ll be trouble for someone to deal with and they’re disappointed that they couldn’t keep that group together.”
Elliotte Friedman on Calgary’s playoff push
It sounds like if the Conroy had it his way, the Flames would’ve extended Tanev and Hanifin and made a push for the playoffs. It also explains why they pulled Markstrom off the market when they did as they saw they still had a chance to squeak into the playoffs.
New Jersey is all in on acquiring Markstrom
Lastly in the New Jersey Devils segment of the podcast, Friedman confirmed that the Devils are fully committed to acquiring Markstrom.
“I believe the New Jersey Devils that Jacob Markstrom is going to be their goalie, they hope. If they don’t get Markstrom done this week they are going to wait to try and do it in the summer. This has to happen between Markstrom and Calgary, if the relationship is fractured New Jersey sounds like they are willing to wait to see how this plays out and get him.”
Elliotte Friedman on New Jersey’s pursuit of Jacob Markstrom
Friedman is never one to make concrete statements, and when he does you know it’s because he’s 100% confident in what he’s reporting. In other words, this was a very strong statement from the league’s best insider and pours even more fuel on the fire when it comes to Markstrom.
By all accounts, the Devils are laser-focused on getting Markstrom on their team even if they have to wait until the summer. It’s now up to Calgary to decide if they want to move Markstrom and what they want to get in return. If this deal doesn’t take place before October 2024, we’ll know which team prevented it from happening.
