[getbak]

Based on everything that has been reported, it seems like there were three time periods in the Markstrom negotiations...

1. All-Star break and eastern road trip: After the Lindholm trade, New Jersey reaches out and makes a serious offer on Markstrom. Conroy is intrigued enough to approach Markstrom about his willingness to waive for the Devils. Markstrom agrees and serious negotiations begin, with many believing it will get done before the team leaves the NYC area.

2. Return to Calgary/San Jose game: Things don't get done before the end of the road trip, but negotiations continue as the team returns home. On February 15, the Flames play the Sharks. Wolf is a surprise starter and Markstrom spends a lot of time after the warm-up interacting with the fans, which is uncharacteristic even when he isn't scheduled to start. Wolf gets lit up but a goalie change isn't made during the game. Online, everyone with any kind of connection to the Flames and Devils seems to think the deal is nearly done and is just a matter of time. The general consensus seems to be that this deal fell apart when the Devils asked the Flames to retain salary and they couldn't agree on the compensation for retention.

3. Cooling off period/win streak: After the deal fell apart, Markstrom had an awful game against Detroit, but then the team turned things around and have gone on a win streak against some tough opponents. Meanwhile, New Jersey has been spinning their wheels and have fallen back. Rumoured that the Devils reached out again offering to make the deal without retention and the Flames may have rebuffed them due to each team's current fortunes.



If that is the rough timeline, I think it's possible that the deal fell apart at stages 1 & 2 because of retention and at stage 3 because of how the team is playing.


Right now, Conroy's primary focus should be on getting a Hanifin deal done.