A day before free agency begins and The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun has dropped somewhat of a bomb on Flames fans this afternoon. The veteran insider has reported that Rasmus Andersson has a short, and I mean very short list of teams he’s be willing to extend with. A.K.A there is one team on his list right now. The Vegas Golden Knights.
Vegas or bust for Andersson
Here’s what LeBrun had to say on Andersson’s preference for his next team.
“As of Monday, the team that tops [Andersson’s] list is the Vegas Golden Knights. Andersson appears to be a little picky about where he would sign… right now, it sounds like it’s Vegas for him. If Andersson agrees to an extension as part of a trade in the coming day, it’s likely with Vegas.”
If you’re Craig Conroy and the Flames, this is probably the last thing you wanted to hear when it comes to Andersson. Much like we saw a year ago with Noah Hanifin, Andersson appears to be strongarming his way to Vegas, leaving the Flames with no option but to send the defender to Sin City. We all remember how poorly that turned out for Calgary last time, and it appears we may be headed in a similar direction once again.
Calgary isn’t happy with Vegas’ current offer
In terms of what the Flames could get in return for Andersson from Vegas, LeBrun mentioned the Flames currently aren’t too pleased with Vegas’ offer.
“Vegas and Calgary have had numerous discussions over the past week, but still no trade has been made, as the Flames haven’t yet been excited about what the Golden Knights have to put on the table.
Notable Nicolas Hague was part of the earlier trade discussions between Vegas and Calgary, but he has since been traded to Nashville.”
This isn’t surprising in the least. Vegas simply has very few assets of value to offer a team like the Flames. They don’t have a first round pick in 2026 because Calgary already has that from the Hanifin deal, and their prospect pool is incredibly shallow. They also don’t have many young roster players that would be interesting to Calgary. Needless to say, it’s hard to envision any deal with Vegas where the Flames get fair value.
Andersson has already turned away multiple other teams
Over draft weekend, we heard numerous reports regarding Andersson and potentially interested teams. It sounds like there was plenty of interest in the player, but Andersson’s desire to only play in Vegas has ruined any talks with other teams.
“The Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Los Angeles Kings were among the teams with trade interest. Still, Andersson wasn’t ready to talk extension with those team, so a trade didn’t materialize. If he isn’t [extended], the value in the trade is diminished”
This is tough to hear. All three of those teams have a plethora of valuable assets to offer up for Andersson compared to Vegas, and it’s easy to envision a large return for the Flames in any deal with Ottawa, L.A. or Columbus. With Andersson all but set on Vegas, it sounds like he has simply refused to talk contract with any other team which has scared other suitors away, or lowered their offers to the point it doesn’t make sense for the Flames.
A familiar situation
All of this is to say, the Flames have been here before with Hanifin and appear to be headed in a similar direction once again with Andersson. Perhaps Conroy pulls of some magic like he did with the Elias Lindholm trade, but right now it seems like the Flames are walking straight towards another underwhelming return for one of their best defencemen for the second year in a row.
