The Swedish goaltender was moved from the Calgary Flames to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
The Swedish goaltender was moved from the Calgary Flames to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
How close were the Toronto Maple Leafs to landing goaltender Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames? It's hard to know exactly.
But in his latest column for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos, the 1A caliber goaltender was at least open the idea of going to the club.
"I'm told Toronto was very much in on the Markstrom sweepstakes and the Calgary Flames netminder, who had a full no-trade clause, would have waived it for a move to the Leafs," Kypreos wrote.
The New Jersey Devils kicked off a wild day of trades across the NHL on Wednesday by acquiring Markstrom from the Flames in exchange for defenseman Kevin Bahl and a top-10 protected first-round draft pick in 2025. The Flames also retained 31.25 percent of Markstrom's $6 million cap hit, which has opened at least some question as to if that price was considered too high for the Maple Leafs, or if the price tag was going to be higher for the hockey mecca.
Another goaltender, Darcy Keumper was moved on Wednesday after the Washington Capitals netminder was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for underachieving forward Pierre-Luc Dubois.
The Maple Leafs have Joseph Woll under contract for next season but questions remain about who the Maple Leafs will get to support him in net. He's capable of being a starter in the NHL with a .915 save percentage in 36 regular season games. However, his durability has come into question with a series of injuries over the last few years, reaching a peak when the goaltender was unavailable to play in Game 7 of their first-round series loss to the Boston Bruins in May.
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The Leafs have been linked to goaltenders like Winnipeg Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit and Florida Panthers netminder Anthony Stolarz in the free-agent market, however, some of the other big names may only be available via trade like Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark or Nashville Predators netminder Juuse Saros.
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