Grading the Jacob Markstrom trade: Devils land big fish, Flames solidify lottery positioning

Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Who needs playoff hockey when we have trades!

The NHL offseason has seemingly begun in earnest, even as the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers prepare for the 2024 Stanley Cup Final to resume this Friday.

On Wednesday, the Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils finally completed a trade that seemed like a foregone conclusion ever since preliminary talks between the two teams fell apart ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. He had to wait three more months in the end, but Jacob Markstrom is heading to the Garden State.

It’s a relatively streamlined trade — one player for one player and one draft pick — that sees both teams address their biggest needs ahead of what should be an enormously consequential season. Let’s dig into it more in the latest edition of Daily Faceoff‘s Trade Grades!

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Receive:

G Jacob Markstrom, 34 – $4.125 million cap hit (31.25% retained, down from $6 million) through 2026

Well, the Devils finally got their guy. We don’t know what the return would’ve looked like had they been successful in acquiring Markstrom from the Flames ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, but it couldn’t have been less than this, right?

In Markstrom, the Devils get a tested veteran who posted some of the strongest underlying numbers of any goaltender in the league this past year despite only managing a 23-23-2 record and a .905 save percentage. Keep in mind, he was playing behind a Flames defense that lost Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov as the year went on and replaced them with various waiver claims and cast-offs from other teams. Considering the circumstances, Markstrom made the Flames more successful than they had any right to be.

The Devils and Flames reportedly started getting down to business on a potential Markstrom deal over the winter and into the spring. Facing the prospect of potentially missing the playoffs entirely due in large part to the inconsistent play of Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws, and Akira Schmid, the Devils set their sights on Markstrom as their No. 1 target. But despite Markstrom agreeing to waive his no-movement clause to go to New Jersey, talks between the two teams hit a snag and the Devils ended up settling for Jake Allen — and, in the end, they did miss the playoffs.

Naturally, both teams were interested in restarting trade talks on Markstrom this summer, and here we are, the day before the solstice, with the first big transaction of the offseason in the books. Sure, the Stanley Cup Final isn’t over yet, but that’s what the NHL and ESPN get for pushing it into the back half of June. The other 30 teams have to take care of business!

With Markstrom and Allen seemingly locked in as their tandem to start the season, the Devils have turned a position of weakness into one of great strength. Sure, both goalies are on the wrong side of 30 and neither has been a model of consistency throughout his career, but there’s more than enough talent there for New Jersey to at least get by next season.

The one area of concern with Markstrom is his playoff track record. The big Swede conceded the starter’s job to Thatcher Demko late in the Vancouver Canucks’ 2020 playoff run. Two years later, he lost four straight to the Oilers in the second round of the 2022 postseason. When he’s on his game, Markstrom is one of the best goalies in the world; when he’s off, he’s really off. But for a Devils team that only needed league-average goaltending to make the playoffs last year, Markstrom should be more than enough to help them get there.

Grade: A

CALGARY FLAMES

Receive:

D Kevin Bahl, 23 – $1.05 million cap hit through 2025
2025 first-round pick (top 10 protected)

After he posted a dreadful .892 save percentage in 59 games during the 2022-23 season, it’s hard to say whether or not the Flames would’ve been able to get anything in a trade for Jacob Markstrom. Here they are, one year later, with a first-round pick and a young defenseman. That’s not nothing, even though they had to retain more than 30 percent of Markstrom’s salary to get it.

The Flames are coming off one of the most aggressive single-season teardowns in recent NHL history. In the span of roughly nine months, the Flames traded pending UFAs Tyler Toffoli, Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Tanev and Hanifin, picking up a collection of future assets in return while also securing the No. 9 overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft.

Now, Markstrom is gone, too. Bahl and the first-round pick both have value, but what really matters for the Flames in this instance is that they’re putting themselves squarely in line to pick as high as they possibly can in next year’s draft. After trading those five players, the Flames were already one of the worst teams in the league to finish the 2023-24 season. Now that Markstrom is gone, too? Don’t be surprised if Calgary ends up with some of the best odds in the 2025 Draft Lottery.

In Bahl, the Flames add yet another enormous depth defenseman to their rapidly growing collection. Over the last six months, the Flames have traded for six defenders and claimed two more off waivers. Here’s the full list: Bahl, Daniil Miromanov, Brayden Pachal, Joel Hanley, Nikita Okhotiuk, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, and Artem Grushnikov. It’s difficult to say whether any of these guys will become difference-makers in the NHL, but you can’t fault the Flames for stocking up. In 82 games with the Devils last season, the 6’6″ Bahl collected 11 points while averaging 17:23 of ice time per night.

In a lot of ways, this deal is similar to when the Flames acquired Mike Smith from the Arizona Coyotes seven years ago. Smith was 35 — one year older than Markstrom is now — and coming off back-to-back strong seasons behind a bad team in the desert. Like Markstrom, he had two years left on his contract. And in that instance, the Flames only gave up a third-round pick and defense prospect Brandon Hickey to get him, and they even convinced the Coyotes to retain 25 percent of Smith’s contract.

Although fans might be disappointed that the Flames couldn’t get New Jersey to part with the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft for Markstrom, that always felt like a bit of a fantasy. The Devils were desperate for a goaltender, but when was the last time a team gave up that type of asset for any player in his mid-30s? It feels like the Flames did about as well as they could’ve, even if they might’ve been able to get more if they pulled the trigger at the deadline. Better yet, they’ve cleared the track for prospect Dustin Wolf to become a full-time NHLer in 2024-25.

Grade: A-

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