[Rumour] Dreger: Markstrom trade won't happen unless NJ includes Mercer and higher draft pick

[420since1974]

Originally Posted by midniteowl

Was Rick Wamsley a top goalie? Netted St Louis a Hull. Sometimes a GM needs to be able to see what his team really needs in order to compete and go deep in the playoff.



I recall and am paraphrasing what Fletcher said after he traded Hull. He said "we know Brett is going to be good, like real good. But we want to win now not a few years down the road. Wamsley and Ramage is our insurance policy, and you have to pay get that policy."



They paid and they won, end of story.

As it turned out, Calgary did need Ramage as an insurance policy because Gary Suter was seriously injured during the first round against Vancouver. Without Ramage available to fill in, I feel that it was very likely that the Flames would NOT have won the Stanley Cup in 1988/1989.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by midniteowl

Don't forget, after the cup, Vernon kinda fell off and Kidd was a complete disaster. Still cannot believe they drafted Kidd instead of Brodeur. If they had drafted Brodeur, yeah, they could have won more than 1 cup.

Kidd was ranked higher
Brodeur was the 2nd last pick of the first round...the entire league other than Boston wishes they made that pick

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

So 1 year? Smith was playing the other highest scoring season. It’s not like they played in different eras. It’s very similar.

Smith did not play in '22-23. Smith is not playing in '23-24. Smith did play in several earlier years when scoring was low and Markstrom wasn't in the league yet.

Isn’t scoring back down this season ?

Not to previous levels.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Well go look at the seasons they have had. It’s pretty close.

2.70 gaa .912 save % Smith
2.71 gaa .910 save % Markstrom

So if you think Markstrom is a top goalie, Smith had similar seasons so he would be a top goalie as well. We paid a 3rd, Hickey and a backup form him.

A bit of a different scoring era back then. Smith was 21st in the league in save percentage amongst goalies who had played in 43% (35 games) or more of the 82 games that season.

Amongst goalies who have played in 26 games or more this year (43% of the games played) Markstrom is 10th in save percentage.

Smiths numbers from that season are more similar to a Pete Mrazek or a Stuart Skinner this year than they are Markstrom’s.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Kidd was ranked higher
Brodeur was the 2nd last pick of the first round...the entire league other than Boston wishes they made that pick

Kidd was ranked much higher, and brodeur was simply a lucky pick.

It’s not like Calgary went off board and failed.

It happens, especially with goalies.

[Infinit47]

This whole conversation is stupid.

NJ needs a goalie badly. There were three good goalies potentially available (Ullmark, Markstrom, Saros) and Fitzgerald was unable to secure any of them. Afterwards Fitzy had a temper tantrum and claimed people were trying to extort him for a goalie.

Is it more likely all three GM's who had goalies to trade colluded to keep the price exorbitantly high, or Fitz misjudged the market for a starting goalie at the trade deadline?

All Fitzcrybaby had to say was the prices asked were too high in his opinion, so he took a pass.

[All In Good Time]

We have no idea about what was offered in trade discussions or how serious those talks were.
However, after witnessing the lunacy of fans like dgibb10 and reading Fitzgeralds “extortion” delusions, we know one thing for sure.
The Devils are once again a Mickey Mouse organization