Craig Conroy’s first major swing as Calgary Flames general manager is looking better by the day, and the Kevin Bahl piece of it has become the kind of move that can quietly reshape a blue line.
When Conroy took over after the 2022-23 season, he wasted no time steering the roster in a new direction. Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin all moved out before he eventually made another bold call the following offseason: sending Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils.
At the time, the return centered on a 2025 first-round pick and Bahl, a defenceman who was still mostly viewed as a work in progress after his first full NHL season in 2023-24. That label hasn’t held up for long. Since landing in Calgary, Bahl has looked like a player who can handle just about anything asked of him without getting rattled.
Now 26, Bahl made an immediate impression with the Flames and earned a six-year, $32.1 million extension with a $5.35 million cap hit after that first season. Since then, his game has only sharpened. He was a steady presence on a struggling Calgary team in 2025-26, and he’s been just as reliable, if not better, in 2026-27.
He doesn’t bring the kind of flash that turns heads outside the market, but Flames fans have seen exactly how valuable he is. Ryan Huska keeps leaning on him whenever a young player needs help settling in, and Bahl has become the kind of stabilizing partner that makes those assignments work.
That’s especially relevant this season with Zayne Parekh and Simon Nemec, two highly talented blueliners who are still learning the NHL game. Both have spent time alongside Bahl, and that makes sense given the role he’s carved out as a sheltering presence for developing defenders.
The Devils, meanwhile, never got the version of Markstrom they were hoping for. The 36-year-old struggled in New Jersey, and his second season there was especially rough: a 3.07 goals-against average and a .883 save percentage in 44 appearances. That summer, he was moved again, this time to the Florida Panthers.
That’s the heart of why this deal looks so lopsided now. Calgary turned an aging goaltender who was trending down into a top-four defenceman who has become one of the team’s most important players.
And Bahl wasn’t the only win in the trade.
The Flames also landed the Devils’ 2025 first-round pick and used it on Cole Reschny at 18th overall. That selection is already drawing plenty of praise. Reschny put up 35 points in 36 games during his freshman season at the University of North Dakota, then opened 2026-27 with eight points in seven games.
There’s still a long way to go with a prospect like Reschny, but the early signs are strong. Even so, the bigger picture already points in one direction: Conroy got a lot more than a rental-style return for Markstrom. He got a cornerstone defender and a promising young forward, and Bahl has already proven he belongs in the Flames’ core.
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Devils Stay Hot After Another Big Night From Jack Hughes
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For a Devils team trying to stay hot, nights like this matter because they show how much they can lean on Hughes when the pace picks up. The win also came in a league landscape that has been busy off the ice as well, with trade chatter around Nikita Kucherov and a broader international dispute over Russia's status at the upcoming world junior tournament adding more noise around the sport. [Read more 🡒]