In what has been one of the more public games of poker between NHL general managers of late, newly hired Calgary GM Craig Conroy is now going through the first sit and wait for offers to get better phase of his new career.
With the likes of Matt Dumba and Ethan Bear still available as unrestricted free agents, Noah Hanifin’s departure will have to wait. Given the lack of cap space league wide — amid a larger trade, two seasons of Taylor Hall at $6,000,000 was just traded for a fringe NHL player — Hanifin’s $4,950,000 cap hit will become more attractive as his daily cap hit diminishes over the season.
And while Yegor Sharangovich may be immediately better than your average first round pick, you have to think Tyler Toffoli would have gotten a lot more at a cap hit of around $1,000,000 at the deadline. Which could have been turned into a $250,000 range of cap hit if a third party were willing to retain.
To Craig’s credit, Taylor Hall had been basically given away less than 24 hours before him and New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald came up with a deal that worked for both sides. Less than 24 hours after that, Ross Colton had been moved for a 2023 second round pick and Vegas fan favourite Reilly Smith had been moved for a 2023 third.
With that said, one domino that may be falling soon for Craig Conroy and the Calgary Flames.
Daniel Vladar The UFA goalie market has reached the point in the offseason where it can be more easily compared to a bowl full of rotten fruit. Joonas Korpisalo, Adin Hill, Tristan Jarry and even Jonathan Quick have all been plucked off the vine and all that remains are the likes of Jonathan Bernier, 34 (ten games played in the last two seasons), Anton Khudobin, 37, and Jaroslav Halak.
Although it’s worth pointing out that 35 year old Alex Stalock put up a sublime season in 2022-2023 despite a very weak defence in front of him. Despite the team posting a 5th worst 3.65 goals against per game, Stalock put up a .908 save percentage and a 3.01 GA/GP over 28 appearances.
Among the trade market, Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins is headed to arbitration and may be a target. The contract he is awarded should be in the $3,500,000 to $4,000,000 range per season. If teams are willing to pony up the assets, Connor Hellebuyck is rumoured to be on his way out in Winnipeg. The final season of his contract carrying a $6,166,666 cap hit is there to be had by some team that can make the dollars work by sending money the other way.
Carter Hart of the Flyers has been rumoured to be available. The 24 year old star has one more season at $3,979,000 and is due for a massive payday. He will also warrant a massive return. As will John Gibson if the Ducks who is 29 and signed for four more seasons at $6,400,000 per.
Then there is the lanky, Czech playing out of Calgary, Alberta. Like the rest of the Flames last year, Vladar’s confidence took a hit as the losses piled up. By the stretch drive, Vladar had been mostly shelved as Darryl Sutter opted to lean on the injury-prone Jacob Markstrom in the final month of the season.
The low point came on February 28 against a Boston Bruins team that was playing their third game in four nights on the road. The Flames came out flying. The first period ended 20-4 in shots in favour of Calgary. The score, on the other hand, favoured the Bruins 2-0 after 20.
Vladar got the yank. He put up a couple of decent games after, but his body language against the Bruins was troubling. You could see he was fighting it. Darryl certainly could.
The 25 year old Czech had a rough go in 2022-2023. A slow start in October and by the time he got his form into the game-stealing, lightning-quick style that he regularly brings — Calgary has begun their season shaking seven game losing streak. One game being against, again, his former team in Boston.
As The Season Spiraled — Daniel Vladar Nov 10 vs Boston: .925sv% February 28 vs Boston: .500sv%
In terms of wins and losses, Vladar was a three act season. Fans may remember that for some time there was outrage that he wasn’t getting the starting role as Markstrom piled up losses.
Act I was October 15 to November 23 — the slow start. A 1-4-1 record, although he put up four above .900 games.
Act II was Nov 29 to January 27 — the push for the starter role. Vladar went thirteen games without losing in regulation. 10-0-3. Over that same span, Jacob Markstrom had a 5-8-3 record.
Act III featured the classic tragic ending. Although you could argue the entire season fit more as a tragic comedy. Two losses to the Red Wings on February 9 and February 16 kicked off a spiral. The third act saw Vladar post a 3-4-1 record saved only by two wins against Anaheim. Vladar was pulled twice in a row against LA and Boston.
Sutter played exclusively Jacob Markstrom for the entire month of April save an April 2 game against the Ducks. A game where Markstrom was pulled after allowing two goals on nine shots. Vladar came in and the Flames rallied to win 5-4 and stay within two points of Winnipeg.
Something is infuriating about that game and how Vladar was handled. The Flames went 3-4-2 against the bottom three teams in the league: Anaheim, Chicago and Columbus. Vladar won two of those in a row and subsequently got put away for the season.
Alright, we’re so off track. The UFA goalie market for starters is empty unless you’re defrosting Mike Smith. A number of rights-controlled goalies may be available but will cost assets and cap.
Daniel Vladar, who has proven he can steal games and who most fans wanted to see promoted last season, only costs $2,200,000 for each of the next two seasons.
Goaltending prospect Dustin Wolf has won the title for best goaltender in his respective league for the past four seasons. Two Del Wilson Trophies in the WHL and two Baz Bastien trophies in the AHL. He also won the Les Cunningham Award last season for AHL MVP. Wolf is making it nigh impossible to keep him in the AHL.
With Markstrom recently having a kid and unwilling to waive the no-movement clause in his six year, 36 million dollar contract, the three questions that remain are:
When does Vladar get moved?
What team does he go to?
What will be the return for his contract?
Let’s make some reasonable inferences.
When An interesting tweet from Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
The humour to the situation is that Conroy’s hand is more or less forced already. The entire league is well aware of Dustin Wolf’s success. It’s common knowledge Markstrom isn’t waiving.
That’s not ideal, but he’s not the only general manager getting nervous.
What team? Most teams by now have lined up at least some notion of who will be their #1 and #2 or their 1A and 1B or what have you, but there are a few teams stuck in a similar holding pattern as the Flames.
Remember the mention of several goalies available by trade? Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets. Carter Hart in Philadelphia. Jeremy Swayman in Boston. John Gibson on the Ducks. All of those teams need to cobble together the second half of a tandem if they are to move a goalie.
The Jets signed Laurent Brossoit, who looks capable but got injured out of last playoffs.
Philly has recent cap dump Cal Pettersen as the starter if Hart is traded. Good luck with that.
Anaheim has Lukas Dostal as their backup. The 24 year old has a bright future but has appeared in only 23 regular season games. He and Vladar would make for a fun Czech tandem with only a year difference in age.
Boston is the one exception. Jeremy Swayman backs up Linus Ullmark who just took home the Vezina Trophy. Although the organization is quite familiar with Vladar and may be interested in having him back. Maybe even for a third round pick — the price Calgary paid to acquire his rights.
What would be the return The unfortunate news for Flames fans is that precedent may have been set recently by the same GM that acquired Tyler Toffoli from them for Yegor Sharangovich and a 2023 third round pick. Tom Fitzgerald traded MacKenzie Blackwood, who is only a year older than Vladar for a 6th round pick in 2024. Ouch.
Blackwood had an off year finishing with a .893 save percentage over 22 games. Vladar also had an off year finishing with a .895 save percentage over 27 games.
It’s fair to say that Sharks GM Mike Grier even used Vladar’s contract as a comparable when signing Blackwood after acquiring his rights. Vladar is on a 2.2x2. Blackwood signed at 2.35x2.
If a 6th round pick is what Craig is getting offered; screw it. Wolf doesn’t need to clear waivers for another two seasons. Let him pick up momentum in the AHL and wait for a GM to get desperate.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via naturalstatrrick.com, eliteprospects.com and nhl.com.