Jacob Markstrom trade rumors highlight how rarely star goaltenders move mid-season

It’s now been more than a decade since an established star goaltender with term remaining on his contract was traded midway through an NHL season.

Yes, it was Roberto Luongo. Of course it was Roberto Luongo.

Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the monster deal that saw Luongo return to the Florida Panthers as part of a four-player transaction after spending eight seasons with the Vancouver Canucks.

Once thought to be impossible to trade (after all, his contract sucked), Luongo ended up providing terrific value to the Panthers over the final half-decade of his career. He led them to the playoffs in 2016 and helped usher along a young core that included Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Aaron Ekblad.

Luongo was an incredible player and remains a unique personality. There aren’t many guys like him, just like there aren’t many trades like that one. Again, it’s now been more than a decade since a star goaltender was moved mid-season, except as a rental.

The Sabres sent Ryan Miller from Buffalo to St. Louis as a rental less than a week before the Luongo deal. Three years later, the L.A. Kings acquired Ben Bishop from Tampa Bay in a similar trade (and then proceeded to miss the playoffs).

Even as recently as 2022, the Minnesota Wild added pending UFA goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from Chicago ahead of the deadline — and then, much to the chagrin of incumbent starter Cam Talbot, re-signed Fleury for two more years the following summer.

But, generally speaking, teams almost always elect to trade established starters with term closer to the draft instead of during the season when given the choice. Goaltending is volatile, top-flite netminders seldom become available down the stretch (save for the odd rental), and teams typically like to have their tandems set in stone early in the summer.

Luongo’s situation was a bit … unusual. The 2013-14 Canucks were a slow-motion car wreck on and off the ice, with their bottom-10 performance being overshadowed by John Tortorella’s wild antics (including benching Luongo for Eddie Lack in the Heritage Classic at BC Place) during his one-year tenure as head coach. The Canucks fired both Tortorella and GM Mike Gillis after the season.

It’s fitting, then, that the centerpiece of the Canucks’ return for Luongo could end up being the first star goaltender with term to be involved in a deadline deal since Bobby Lu himself.

Jacob Markstrom has two years left on his contract after this one. His $6 million AAV is actually higher than Luongo’s was back in 2014, although the salary cap was significantly lower back then (and the Canucks retained $800,000 of his $5.33 million annual charge). His contract also carries a full no-movement clause.

Back in 2014, Markstrom was a 24-year-old prospect who had struggled to live up to his billing as a high second-round pick through parts of four seasons with the Panthers. He went 11-25-5 with a .898 save percentage in 43 games with the Panthers before the trade.

After arriving in Vancouver, Markstrom needed a few years to develop before becoming one of the league’s most dependable and workmanlike starters in his late 20s. He put together his first 20-win season with the Canucks in 2017-18 and has surpassed that plateau each year since, topping out with 37 wins (and a Vezina Trophy nomination) with the Calgary Flames in 2021-22.

The Flames signed Markstrom to a six-year contract as an unrestricted free agent from the Canucks in 2020. Initially expected to help elevate the Flames into Stanley Cup contention, Markstrom is now one of the elder statesmen on a team looking to reset and get younger. At this point, the window to win just isn’t there for him in Calgary.

A decade and two days ago, Markstrom was traded alongside Shawn Matthias for one of the best goaltenders in the game. Now, it’s Markstrom who is the top goalie on the market — and, in atypical fashion, he could be on the move ahead of the March 8 deadline.

As Daily Faceoff‘s own Frank Seravalli reported earlier this week, Calgary nearly traded Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils in recent weeks, only for Flames ownership to kibosh the deal at the 11th hour. Who’s to say what kind of package the Devils might’ve had on the table for Markstrom? We may find out later this week, or even in the summer; by all indications, Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald remains keenly interested in the 34-year-old goaltender.

The Devils have played themselves into a position where they’re just as focused on next season as this current one. Unlike a rental, Markstrom would help them in both areas. He’s playing very well right now and probably would’ve stolen a few games along the way had the Devils been able to trade for him three weeks ago.

As it stands, New Jersey currently occupies the seventh spot in the Metropolitan Division with a 30-28-4 record and 64 points in 62 games. They’re not completely out of the race, but they’re cutting it really close. Time is in short supply.

There’s no upside for the Devils to wait until the summer on Markstrom. They need wins now, and the prices could be higher in June when more teams enter the market. If the Devils were willing to throw in the towel and start looking ahead to the summer, they wouldn’t have fired Lindy Ruff four days before the trade deadline.

It all comes down to what the Flames are willing to do. They retained salary for only the second time in team history when they traded Chris Tanev to the Dallas Stars last week. Unlike the Devils, they’re in no rush to make a move, even if Markstrom himself doesn’t sound too thrilled with the whole situation.

We’re now roughly 48 hours out from the trade deadline. The Flames and Devils have a chance to pull something off that hasn’t been done in the NHL for a long, long time. And if it does happen, it’d have a chance to completely reshape the playoff race in the Eastern Conference both now and in years to come.