Does Calgary and New Jersey's trade involving goaltender Jacob Markstrom go through in NHL 24?
The New Jersey Devils have finally addressed their need in net by acquiring Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom.
Markstrom is 86 overall with the role of a starter in the game. Fun fact, he was the same overall as Boston's Jeremy Swayman when NHL 24 was released. Swayman is now one of the top-rated goalies at 90 overall.
These two teams have been linked together involving Jacob Markstrom since early this year as the trade deadline approached. Back in March, we used NHL 24 to see what the NHL video game saw as a fair trade. We had two proposals that went through.
The first was trading forward prospect Chase Stillman, goaltender Erik Källgren, and a 2025 second round pick. The second trade that went through for Markstrom in that video was netminder Nico Daws, defenseman Santeri Hatakka, and a second and third round pick. These trades were very underwhelming and it’s a good thing the game didn’t foreshadow those crummy returns for the No. 1 netminder.
However, since we got the details of what went back to Calgary for Markstrom, we wanted to check out what EA Sports thought of the deal, from both team’s perspectives. We started things off acting as Calgary’s GM.
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As you see from the pictures above, the Devils rejected the original deal of Kevin Bahl and a 2025 first round pick, but we were able to complete the trade just by simply changing the first to a second-rounder. Losing out on that first round pick is something I’m sure Craig Conroy was not going to do.
What about from New Jersey's perspective?
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Ironically on the other side, while we acted as the GM for New Jersey, the Flames rejected the proposal since they didn’t want to retain salary. A simple solution was to get the salary cap retained down to $1 million from $1.875.
Was there a clear winner from this trade? Or did both teams come out with wins? It does feel like Dustin Wolf rightfully deserves a shot full-time in net for the Flames alongside Dan Vladar, but I wonder if they could have gotten more of a return for Markstrom if it wasn't for his full no-move clause.
Considering that full no-move clause, Calgary did well to get a first round pick back and a young defenseman who can play on their roster next season, and potentially grow into a fixture in their top four. If anything, Bahl can be a serviceable bottom pairing defenseman for the Flames