Flames player taken off trade block; calls out team management
The Calgary Flames have been one of the busier teams in the National Hockey League this season on the trade market, dealing away three key members of the organization.
In early December, they dealt Nikita Zadorov to the Vancouver Canucks, followed by another deal with their Canadian rivals in January, this time involving Elias Lindholm.
On Wednesday night, the Flames finally pulled the trigger on a trade which sent veteran defenceman Chris Tanev to the Dallas Stars in exchange for a pair of draft picks (one being conditional) and a prospect, Artem Grushnikov.
With just over one week until the National Hockey League's trade deadline for the 2023-24 season, there are a pair of names that were expected to be moved by Flames General Manager Craig Conroy - Noah Hanifin and Jacob Markstrom. But according to Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period, hockey fans can scratch Markstrom off their trade bait lists.
In a post on X on Thursday, Di Marco said that the Flames are going to hang onto Jacob Markstrom for the remainder of the 2023-24 season, with his colleague, David Pagnotta, added that the New Jersey Devils made another attempt to deal for the netminder, but were shut down by Conroy and the front office.
They want to send the right message to the team." Di Marco said.
Pagnotta added, "Further to this, the Devils tried to circle back but the #Flames are telling people they now plan on keeping Markstrom for the rest of this season."
On Friday, Markstrom met with the media and he wasn't too happy with how the Calgary Flames' management group has handled his situation recently.
Markstrom, 34, has one year remaining on his contract following this season with a cap hit of $6 million and a full no-movement clause. It's certainly possible that the Flames take another look at moving him in the offseason or before the deadline next year, but at some point, they'll need to clear the way for Dustin Wolf to become the full-time starting goaltender in Calgary.
In 37 games this season, the Gavle, Sweden native has record of 20-15-2 with a 2.56 goals against average, a .914 save percentage and two shutouts.
| POLL | ||
Who will be Calgary's starting goaltender on opening night of the 2024-25 season? | ||
| Jacob Markstrom | 96 | 48.2 % |
| Dan Vladar | 37 | 18.6 % |
| Dustin Wolf | 52 | 26.1 % |
| See Results | 14 | 7 % |
| List of polls | ||
