Regarding the Athletic scoring - first, no surprise, as they hate everything the Flames do. Every time I see something from the Athletic, my immediate reaction is that it comes off like it was written by an Oiler fan (which it probably was).
Having said that, the sentiment is somewhat understandable from the old view of a trade which is: whoever gets the best player wins. Markstrom is the best player in the deal (at the moment), so sure.
However, things are different in the cap era: the player's salary is a HUGE determinant in their value. Markstrom is going to be 35 in January and has a contract of $6M per. Great goalie, and he'll help the Devils, but you can't just ignore the money and the age.
The Flames got a 1st and a young defenseman with significant upside. And they gained $4M of cap space. And they (most likely) improved their own picks for next year. When you factor those things into the trade, there is no question that the Flames did well - I would argue very well. So anything short of A-, or at worst B+, is simply not understanding what they got in return, IMO.
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