Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
It completely sounds like a deal was there. If there was no deal why was Markstrom approached and why did he admit he thought he was not going to leave New Jersey with the team? If there was no deal why would Bean have to take the deal to Edwards and then nix it? There was a deal there and everything points to the deal needing approval on retention. The approval didn't happen and the deal had to be reworked without retention, and that appeared to be where the reduction in draft pick came in. I don't understand the denial here? Why is it hard to believe that the deal was agreed to on terms but couldn't get done because of ownership not wanting to retain?
|
There is absolutely no evidence that the original deal included retention (it may have, it may not have, anything beyond that is mere speculation) or that ownership had anything to do with it being scrapped. There is evidence that Fitz came back to the Flames and requested retention (which would block a retention spot for the remainder of the deal). At this point, it appears that the Flames' ask for retention was higher than Fitz thought was market value, so the deal was scuttled. When he came back with a lesser offer without retention, it didn't meet Conroy's ask. In the middle of the process, Fitz said some rather unflattering things about Holtz, which make me question how much either the Devils or the Flames value him as an asset.
I'm pretty sure that the Flames wanted Mercer and a 1st if retention was involved, and Fitz wanted to move out Holtz instead. There may have been an understanding about a deal of Markstrom for Holtz and a 1st, with the price of retention TBD, but when Conroy said that Mercer instead of Holtz was the price of retention, Fitz said that was too big an ask. When he subsequently offered Holtz and a 2nd for no retention, Conroy felt that he would rather keep Markstrom as an experienced starting goaltender to mentor Wolf, as both assets coming back would be B to C grade assets.