The Calgary Flames entered the 2024-25 season with three goaltenders they really liked: incumbent backup Dan Vladar, top prospect Dustin Wolf, and free agent signing Devin Cooley.
Vladar is a pending unrestricted free agent on an expiring contract, while Wolf and Cooley are on contracts that convert to one-way NHL deals for the 2025-26 season. Vladar and Wolf have been a strong tandem in the NHL, while Cooley has emerged as the AHL’s top netminder.
On paper, the play seems simple: when the offers get good enough you trade Vladar for a draft pick, and swap in Cooley from the Wranglers. The team’s youth movement can continue and the team adds a future asset via the pick.
But with the Flames hanging around the playoff picture, and any asset flip plan relying on exciting offers rolling it, it doesn’t sound like the market is heating up quite yet. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was on Barn Burner on Monday and discussed the goaltending trade market in the context of the Carolina Hurricanes’ search for cost-effective help in net.
…so to answer your question would the Carolina Hurricanes be interested in Vladar? I do believe that they called the Calgary Flames, they called a thousand people over the last couple weeks to try and understand what the goaltending market looks like. I’m told with the ‘Canes they’re going to be pretty patient, and that’s not going to shock anyone, but the way that they’ve read the market is… name for me aside from Carolina one other team that’s looking for a goalie right now? Because that’s what the Carolina Hurricanes just figured out. They go, ‘oh wait a second no one else is looking for a goalie, so we’ve got Vladar, we’ve got Karel Vejmelka in Utah, we’ve got John Gibson, we’ve got all these guys that are going to be available that and some that we don’t even know yet are going to become available. If we sit back and wait because we’re in fine shape, we might not need to pay much at all to get a legitimate upgrade that can help our team.’So they understood that the asking price from the Flames was a second round pick for for Vladar and the Flames at the very least are going to try and figure out okay what happens here now moving forward. If push comes to shove do we accept a third or do we re-sign Vladar and that’s not going to impact our ability to trade him at any point in time in the future if we want to. The Flames have decisions to make on that front.
Seravalli added later on, during a discussion regarding the seeming succession plan in the Flames net, that there have been potential extension talks between the club and Vladar: “I’m just telling you they’re they’ve had talks to potentially extend Vladar and right now the price has been too high.”
(For what it’s worth, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun noted in Tuesday’s “Rumblings” column that Vladar is “on the Canes’ radar” but that the Flames aren’t in selling mode yet.)
Do the Flames wait it out to try to get their desired price? Do they “settle” for a third-rounder and recoup their initial price from when they acquired Vladar from Boston in 2021? Do they make a move if they get back less than a third-rounder? Do they re-sign Vladar to maintain continuity and depth in net? (Or to bolster his future trade value?) Or do they merely walk him to free agency?
We’ll see what happens between now and the Mar. 7 trade deadline… and between now and when Vladar’s current contract expires on July 1.
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