Major salary retention by Calgary to facilitate Jacob Markstrom trade!

The Flames have retained 31.25% on his remaining contract which has two more years to facilitate the transaction.
In return the Flames receive 23-year-old defenseman Kevin Bahl and the Devils’ first round pick in 2025. The first round pick is top-10 protected.

However, Calgary also had to retain a significant amount of Markstrom’s salary for the trade to materialize. It has been confirmed that the Flames have retained 31.25% on his remaining contract which has two more years to facilitate the transaction.

Markstrom had been linked to New Jersey for the past few months and obviously accept the trade as his deal holds a no-trade clause. The netminder was almost moved to the Devils prior to the trade deadline, but the deal fell apart.

The Devils attempted to patch things up between the pipes at the deadline when they acquired Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen, but now have a starter in Markstrom for the upcoming seasons.

He will count for $4.125 million against the Devils cap after the retention by the Flames. He remains scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.

“Today’s trade demonstrates our focus on the infusion of young talented players into our roster as well as acquiring important draft capital, while maintaining our commitment as a playoff competitive team,” said Flames general manager Craig Conroy said in a release. “We thank Jacob for his professionalism and understanding of our decision to make this trade now and at this stage in his career.”

What do you make of the trade? Who is the winner here?