Toronto Maple Leafs and Jacob Markstrom
Many people in the hockey world believe the Calgary Flames will be making goaltender Jacob Markstrom available, which is pretty obvious given his bad contract situation.
He would be a pricey add for most teams looking to be in the NHL playoffs. The soon-to-be 34-year-old Swede has a $6 million salary cap hit for two more seasons after this one. That should eliminate the Leafs from being interested, but who knows?
Most interested teams would need the Flames to retain some of Markstrom's salary for a trade to work.
For the Leafs, the Flames would likely be asked to retain 50% of Markstrom's cap to make a deal work.
The Leafs would either need to trade Samsonov before talking with the Flames or make him part of the deal to get Markstrom. Depending on how well Woll or Jones play in the second half of the season, there is no guarantee that Markstrom will become the Leafs new number-one goaltender, which means the commitment for another two years wouldn't really make sense - you'd want a surefire #1 at for this price/commitment.
So far, Markstrom has a 13-11-2 record this season through 26 appearances, and he has a 2.59 GAA and a .912 SV% with two shutouts.
This is Markstrom's 14th season in the NHL, but he has only been to the playoffs twice. If the Flames are out of a playoff spot by the time we reach the NHL trade deadline, Markstrom could be made available, and the Leafs are thought to be one of the teams interested in him.