Yeah, I don't get it

I get the whole sentiment of wanting to remain competitive, but maybe don't backtrack after selling 3 big pieces away? Just a weird move

You put Wolf behind Markstrom, it likely helps with Wolf’s development. How much did NJ want retained?

No idea but I think a million would be decent.

There was one buyer.
A monopsony.
CGY didn’t have price-setting power
No leverage.

And since that single buyer was trying to buy Hanifin and Markstrom as package, Conroy had to decouple them so he didn’t drag down his Hanifin return.

“2-3 million” was the latest

I'd bite the bullet and retain on Markstrom and take the young scoring winger with a pretty decent upside over not making the playoffs and risking Markstrom falling off because he's old.

The team will probably be retooling the next few seasons anyway, the retention slot isn't a big deal.

Who knows, maybe Conroy saw what flames fans were convinced they'd get.

Would flames fans be more pissed expecting 1st+Holtz+Casey and getting no trade or expecting that and getting Holtz for a 2 mill retained Markstrom.

I'd imagine there might have been more pieces involved that we probably don't know about. Maybe another mid-ish round pick for retention.

Conroy shouldn't worry about fan service and do what's right for the team. If Markstrom gets a 1st+ this offseason, I'll admit I'm wrong. But until then, I think it was a pretty crappy decision.

There must be another side to it…if he wanted to sell Markstrom as standalone piece a couple of weeks ago, and got his asking price from NJD, only reason I can think it didn’t happen was buyer wanted another piece involved. Especially since the original story of owners nixing retention seems to have been debunked.

I expect NJD wanted Hanifin as well.

I can also think of another reason. Markstrom decided against NJ with his NMC. Lots of reasons to pass when you consider non hockey related reasons

Apparently he had no problem waiving it

The one thing that is true about this time of season is opinions change when things get closer