Several teams in the National Hockey League wish they had better goaltending. One of them is the Colorado Avalanche, particularly after an eventful evening on Monday night where they allowed eight goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli had a chat about goaltending situations around the league and possible solutions for the Avalanche. Among those that were discussed: Calgary Flames netminder Dan Vladar.
Here’s Seravalli’s thoughts from the episode:
Why not go get Dan Vladar from the Calgary Flames? He’s been excellent so far. He’s on our trade targets board. The Flames would be just as happy to go with Cooley as the backup to Dustin Wolf for the remainder of this year. Second round pick, if you are Chris McFarland, that’s what it’s going to cost to get Dan Vladar out of Calgary.
So here’s the deal with the Flames’ goaltenders. Right now, the Flames have three goaltenders in their pro system that are playing really well:
  • 23-year-old Dustin Wolf was the team’s goalie-of-the-future, but now he’s looking like their goalie of the present. Through 12 games this season he’s 8-3-1 with a 2.47 goals against average and .921 save percentage. He’s signed through next season.
  • 27-year-old Dan Vladar, previously Jacob Markstrom’s backup, has rebounded nicely from hip surgery. In 10 games this season he’s 4-4-2 with a 2.67 goals against average and .903 save percentage. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent on July 1.
  • 27-year-old Devin Cooley, the AHL starter with the Wranglers, has played 14 AHL games and is 10-3-0 with a 1.89 goals against average and .944 save percentage. He’s signed through next season.
The Flames originally acquired Vladar from the Boston Bruins in 2021 for a third-round pick. He’s currently on a contract with a $2.2 million cap hit. I wouldn’t imagine that the Flames are in any hurry to move Vladar, as things are going well for the NHL club, but if a team made them a suitable offer they would probably consider it – especially given Vladar’s expiring contract and Cooley’s presence and performance in the AHL. With Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen having some tough nights so far this season with the Avalanche, perhaps there’s a fit between the Flames’ goalie surplus and Colorado’s seeming need for them.
Via PuckPedia, the Avalanche have approximately $4.6 million in cap space, but they’re currently operating using long-term injury reserve cap space, so they would need to make some additional moves to free up cap room if/when they ever got fully healthy.
Should the Flames entertain trade offers for Dan Vladar? And what would the right price tag be for the netminder? Let us know in the comments!

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