Seravalli: Don Maloney nixed Markstrom trade with New Jersey on behalf of Flames ownership

The Calgary Flames made it far down the road on a Jacob Markstrom deal with the New Jersey Devils before Flames president Don Maloney shut it down on behalf of ownership, Daily Faceoff hockey insider Frank Seravalli reported Monday.

Speaking on Monday’s episode of the DFO Rundown podcast, Seravalli went into detail about the process that led to Markstrom approving a deal to New Jersey that ultimately never went through.

“I don’t think Jacob Markstrom’s issue with the Flames’ front office is at all with Craig Conroy,” Seravalli said. “My understanding, and this is a belief I’ve had for three weeks or a month now, is that the Flames and Devils had agreed to a trade on Markstrom. They had gone to Markstrom and said, ‘We’re thinking about trading you to New Jersey, what are your thoughts?’ He gave them the green light. I don’t know if he actually had a piece of paper in front of him or not. But the two sides, I believe, had agreed in principle to a trade, and then above Craig Conroy — so, if you’re reading between the lines and picking up what I’m putting down here — Don Maloney, on behalf of ownership, is believed to have nixed this trade.

“I think Markstrom’s frustration is, ‘You asked me if I would waive, I said yes, then you don’t trade me?’ And then you determine after the fact that you’re not going to trade me, or you’ve told people that you’re not going to trade me. I could understand why that would be disappointing. And I think from Markstrom’s perspective, he’s a really competitive guy. He wants a chance to win. He doesn’t want to sit here and languish — not to say that’s going to end up happening, because I do think they’ll trade him in the summer, and it makes sense because there’ll probably be four or five teams that’ll be in the mix for Markstrom.”

Markstrom, 34, has two years left on his contract after this one at a $6 million cap hit. On Monday, Seravalli put the odds of Markstrom being traded before the March 8 deadline at “25 percent.”

Through 38 games with the Flames this season, Markstrom has put together a 21-15-2 record to go along with a .914 save percentage. He stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced in the Flames’ 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

Markstrom made waves in his media availability on Friday when he said he felt his situation “could’ve been handled differently from up top.” Given the nature of Seravalli’s comments on Monday, it’s becoming a little clearer what Markstrom’s “up top” remark might’ve meant.

We’re now just four days out from the 2024 NHL trade deadline. The Flames have already parted ways with Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, and Chris Tanev, but they’re still expected to make some noise between now and March 8.

As always, keep checking back on FlamesNation this week — especially if and when Noah Hanifin, Kevin Rooney, and Markstrom are moved — for all the details and reaction you could possibly want.