Trade talk continues to swirl around the Flames goaltender and Craig Conroy has a big decision to make

However the Jacob Markstrom chapter ends with the Calgary Flames, the franchise has a lot of work to do. If they deal their newly disgruntled goaltender on NHL trade deadline day, a new era of netminding begins.

The tandem of Dan Vladar and Dustin Wolf will be tasked with what could prove to be a challenging final stretch of a season that has seen the team dump a handful of high-end players for future assets.

If they keep Markstrom, who last week voiced his displeasure with the way the Flames handled his situation while nearly completing a deal with the New Jersey Devils, we’ll see how long his ability to Miikka Kiprusoff the competition continues.

Kiprusoff covered up a lot of holes in the Flames lineups for the better part of a decade. Markstrom has been the Flames’ MVP this season — the main reason the team continues to flirt with playoff relevancy.

Trading him for more promising young players and picks seems like a no-brainer at this point, with two more seasons at $6 million AAV putting a lot of value in a position that doesn’t align with the rebuilding the Flames are undergoing (however unintentional it really is due to the high number of UFAs GM Craig Conroy inherited from predecessor Brad Treliving.

Their Stanley Cup window — if all goes perfectly — likely doesn’t come for a few more years.

The wrinkle here is ownership.

If you believe the narrative that the Markstrom beef came courtesy of a call made by owner Murray Edwards to nix the deal with the Devils after the goaltender was asked to waive his no-movement clause, motivation to continue to lift a team to serve that owner’s profit may not be forthcoming.

Edwards has forever been a proponent of retooling rather than rebuilding, and may still believe the team can force its way in this season despite the turnover.

There is an angle of thought that makes some sense. The notion of keeping a winning culture in the Flames locker-room is somewhat important. Keeping Markstrom makes it easier to sell that the team has only endeavoured in this rebuild mentality out of necessity, with Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin all set to hit the free market this summer.

And Markstrom isn’t a trade of necessity. He could just as easily be dealt at the draft or later when more teams are assessing their needs at the position.

But Conroy and the Flames have some trade momentum going, and we’ll see if that continues in today’s final hours.