It appears as though the Rasmus Andersson saga may finally be coming to a close, with a trade becoming more and more likely this week. After another crushing loss last night, their fifth in the last six games, the Flames look to be waving the white flag on the 2025-26 season. In his latest edition of post-game Flamestalk, Pat Steinberg offered up some interesting words on the future of Rasmus Andersson.
The final week of Rasmus Andersson’s Flames career?
Following a listener text on Andersson’s future, Pat offered up the below on what comes next for the 29-year-old as the trade deadline approaches.
“First of all, would not surprise me, just from a few things that I’ve heard today and now tonight, would not surprise me if the heat gets turned up that much more on a Rasmus trade. Would not surprise me if we’re talking about this thing being closer and closer as we move through the rest of the week… this feels very much like Noah Hanifin’s banner game two years ago… and a few days later he was traded.
A lot of the indications based on what we’re hearing from Rasmus and a lot of what you’re hearing from around the league and from people I’ve been talking to here, I just feel like we are in the endgame now.”
This sounds like Pat clearly has some intel that suggests Andersson will be traded this week, or at least that’s what the team and Andersson hope. Like he mentions, Andersson’s game against Columbus very much felt like a farewell of sorts. He was all around the game, including a fight, and it seemed to be one of his most emotional games of the season. Given what Pat mentioned about the “endgame”, it’d be quite a surprise to see this drag on for another 1.5 months leading up to the trade deadline.
Was last night Andersson’s farewell game?
Later on in the segment, Pat once again brings up Andersson and suggests that not only is this week looking like his last as a Flame, but we may even see a trade before the Flames step on the ice again on Thursday night.
“I honestly believe that tomorrow would be an ideal time to do it. I’ll be perfectly honest with you, if it were to happen in the next 24-48 hours, it would not surprise me at this point. What I’m hearing, it feels like the volume has been cranked up again in the last 12-24 hours on this thing. It doesn’t mean a deal is imminent, but hearing what you’re hearing from people you talk to around the league, I wonder if we’re moving into a window where it’s not that far off.”
It certainly seems like the Flames’ recent losing streak has kicked the Andersson talks into high gear. With the team now sitting seven points out of the playoffs with one extra game played, any hope of the playoffs is essentially gone at this point. After another crushing late-game defeat to the Blue Jackets yesterday, it sounds like the team is ready to get to business and consider this season a lost cause.
Pat takes his original quote one step further, suggesting a 24-48 hour window in which an Andersson deal seems likely following last night’s loss. When someone as connected as Pat mentions a trade would not surprise him in the next 48 hours, it likely means there’s a whole lot of smoke behind the scenes.
