The goaltending market will be interesting to follow this off-season, with many teams looking to make moves.
One team that will be the centre of attention is the Calgary Flames, who will have a decision to make with Jacob Markstrom. The veteran starter has two years remaining on his deal with a $6 million cap hit.
As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the latest edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, the Flames are still looking to get a deal done.
“It was so crazy during the season, Calgary is trying to do this as quietly as possible. That’s not going to be easy. I mean, good luck with that at this time of the year,” Friedman said. “They just know what a roller-coaster it was for everybody involved, including the player and themselves, and I think they’re really, really trying to avoid it. But there’s definitely something going on.”
When it comes to potential suitors for Markstrom, Friedman mentioned three teams in particular who will look to be in talks with the Flames for Markstrom in the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.
“New Jersey, (GM Tom) Fitzgerald’s on record as saying he will consider moving his 10th overall pick, and I know a lot of people are looking at in goal,” Friedman said. “Toronto, and I know deals with Toronto and Calgary are kind of complicated, but the GM in Toronto is the guy who signed Markstrom in Calgary and, just on paper, a Markstrom-[Joseph] Woll combination is a pretty good combination. I look at that and I say, ‘I could see why a team like Toronto would be interested in that, potentially.’
“The other team that I think is in on almost every goalie conversation is Ottawa. Now, I don’t know how Markstrom feels about that, but I was told every conversation that involves a goalie, you have to have Ottawa around it.”
Markstrom appeared in 48 games this past season with the Flames, posting a 23-23-2 record with a 2.78 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
With Markstrom still locked in for a couple of seasons, Flames general manager Craig Conroy won’t be in a rush to make a deal but Markstrom has made it clear he wants to compete for a Stanley Cup.
Also, Dustin Wolf is knocking on the door, and Dan Vladar is under contract for another season in Calgary, so the team has more incentive to get assets back for Markstrom.
When the Flames’ season ended, Eric Francis wrote that Markstrom even fuelled trade speculation when he simply said “I don’t know” when asked where he saw himself playing next season.
Predators optimistic they can keep Saros?
Another goaltender who will be a hot topic of conversation is Jusse Saros as he enters the final year of his deal with the Nashville Predators.
Friedman said that, after a phone conversation, it appears there is motivation for Saros to stay in Nashville
“The player wants to stay and the team wants him to stay,” Friedman said. “Everybody involved is choosing to look at it optimistically for that reason. The person who I think would know seemed to be really optimistic that Saros and the Predators will work it out.”
Friedman did report that Saros could wait until Igor Shesterkin and the New York Rangers sign a new contract before working out a deal with Nashville.
Saros has one year remaining on a bargain of a contract that comes with a $5 million AAV, which GM Barry Trotz said he was “going to work hard” to extend this summer.
If the team is unable to come to an agreement with Saros, they do have Yaroslav Askarov, the 11th-overall pick of the 2020 draft who has posted back-to-back .911 save percentage seasons in the AHL, waiting in the pipeline.
NHL reached out to Beach on Quenneville and Bowman
During his state of the league address, commissioner Gary Bettman made it clear that both Joel Quenneville and Stan Bowman were not eligible to return but that the league would have to make a decision soon on their availability.
Friedman reported that the league has been in touch with Kyle Beach to see how he would feel about them being able to return. Beach is a former player who reached a settlement with the Blackhawks in December 2021 after alleging he was sexually assaulted by then-video coach Brad Aldrich, which occurred when Quenneville was coach and Bowman the team’s GM.
“This is not something obviously anybody should be guessing on. I would be really wary of reporting anything that Beach would have to say without talking to him first,” Friedman said. “I did try to find out if there had been communication between Beach and the league and the league didn’t want to talk about it.
“But someone did confirm to me there has been a conversation, at least one, between Beach and the NHL, although they stressed to me that nobody was going to violate what was said.”
Dillon looking to test free agency
The Winnipeg Jets could be in the market for a defenceman or two, with Brenden Dillon expected to test free agency.
“I just hear he’s going to free agency,” Friedman said about Dillon. “I think there were conversations between him and the Jets, and you never rule anything out, but I don’t think there’s going to be any re-signing with Winnipeg before the window opens.”
The 33-year-old appeared in 77 games this past season with the Jets scoring a career-high eight goals and had 20 points while averaging 18:44 of ice time.
He saw his playoffs cut short after suffering a deep cut on his hand that required stitches. Dillon was apparently cut by a skate blade during a scrum after the final horn of Game 3 against the Avalanche in the first round.
What will make it tough for the Jets to keep Dillon is the potential for some tough competition for the rugged defenceman.
“It appears to be a very good market for a defenceman,” Friedman explained. “There are some defencemen who are really going to hit it big here, and the other thing I’m also hearing is that it’s going to be a very good market for depth forwards who can play multiple places in your lineup and play that kind of heavy playoff hockey game.
“So the heavy defenceman and the heavy portable forward who can go up and down your lineup sounds like a lot of them are going to do pretty well.”
Marchessault in talks to stay with Golden Knights
On July 1, the clock will start to run on the Vegas Golden Knights to try and decide what the future will be with Jonathan Marchessault.
The reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner has one year remaining on his contract and is coming off a career-high 42 goals this past season.
It appears as if the team wants to get his contract sorted out soon, after Marchessault expressed frustration on the lack of talk about his future in Vegas.
“I don’t know if I want to use the word progress, but it’s clear from some people I heard at the combine that those conversations have at least started,” Friedman said. “I can understand how a player gets frustrated and flustered, but teams will say, ‘Look, we still have time,’ and I’m under the impression, based on some of the things I heard, that at least the conversations have begun, and we’ll see where they go.”