The Calgary Flames may need to trade Dan Vladar to make room for Dustin Wolf

Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna delved into the Calgary Flames’ goaltending situation on Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live.

Incoming Flames general manager Craig Conroy spoke last week about the Flames wanting to give top prospect Dustin Wolf an opportunity in the show. But with Jacob Markstrom and Dan Vladar both already having established themselves in Calgary, something has to give to make that happen.

McKenna made a pretty clear case for what the Flames should do to bring Wolf into the NHL. Here’s a look at his conversation with Seravalli on Tuesday.

Frank Seravalli: Alright, Mike, let’s dive into the goaltending carousel, which is truly about to spin, with this week’s edition of “The Blue Paint.” Want to throw to a clip from Craig Conroy, had a chance to speak with the new Flames GM last week on “Frankly Speaking” about their goaltending situation. Here’s what he had to say:

Craig Conroy (clip): The one thing is, with two goalies under contract, those are the kind of conversations you have with other teams. Wolf definitely put himself right in the mix, it’s a good problem for me to have three goalies that we feel very comfortable with. So, as I start talking to GMs around the league, is there an opportunity, does someone need a goalie, because I think all our guys want to play every night. That’s the one thing. But I do think, at some point, Wolf needs to come up. […]

Seravalli: So, you heard Craig Conroy say it. The Flames have a good problem to have with Dustin Wolf ready for NHL opportunity. Dan Vladar and Jacob Markstrom, of course, are already there in Calgary. What should they do?

Mike McKenna: This is easy! I mean, everything Conroy said basically leads to what should happen. They need to trade Dan Vladar. Now, that being said, he’s a goaltender that, even within that organization, there’s a lot of belief. They really love Vladar, they think he’s got a high ceiling. But Dustin Wolf’s a two-time reigning AHL goalie of the year, he was the AHL MVP — that’s the first time that’s happened since 2003, when it happened to be Calgary’s goalie coach, Jason LaBarbera, who was the AHL MVP. Bottom line is, they need to get Wolf in the door, say, get a place to live, you’re going to be here all year, and we’re going to give you the leash to make this happen. Because I don’t think Markstrom’s contract, I don’t think you can move on from it, and I’d like to see a resurgent Jacob Markstrom anyway. I like that combo: Wolf and Markstrom.

Watch the full episode here: