The Calgary Flames should be in no rush to trade top goaltender Jacob Markstrom

The Calgary Flames have been one of the most active teams off the ice in the National Hockey League this season, already having traded Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, and now Chris Tanev.

In the wake of Wednesday’s deal with the Dallas Stars, all attention in Calgary now turns to Noah Hanifin and Jacob Markstrom. But while Hanifin is a near lock to be traded before the March 8 deadline, Markstrom’s fate is far less certain.

For one, while Hanifin is a pending UFA, Markstrom has two years left after this one on his contract. Starting goaltenders with term are seldom traded mid-season.

And as Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed on Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, the trade market for Markstrom could expand considerably if the Flames wait until the summer to move him …

Tyler Yaremchuk: The goalie market is where I want to go next, and Jacob Markstrom is the big fish. Are you hearing anything on his availability — or, maybe, lack thereof?

Frank Seravalli: I think it’s a thin market, but what I will say now is the Calgary Flames have absolutely a prime position here on Jacob Markstrom moving forward. They’re not in a rush, they don’t need to move him. If New Jersey wants to rekindle things and knock their socks off between now and next Friday, ‘Be my guest’ is essentially their thought process. And sure, why not? But if not, Markstrom could help your team remain competitive and maybe, just maybe, if you like to root for chaos, a first-round matchup could materialize between the Flames and the Dallas Stars, where the Flames could potentially be putting their own conditional pick at peril in that round — and I say that totally in jest.

But the point is, take a look at the future goalie free agent market. I haven’t done a full analysis of it yet because I’m so focused on the trades, but it looks like Kaapo Kahkonen might be the premier goalie available on the free agent market this summer. What does that mean? If there’s only potentially one team in the hunt for Markstrom right now, the Flames could have that market totally cornered when it comes to this summer and have four, five, six teams that might want to get their hands on Jacob Markstrom.

Watch the full episode here: