In recent times, Calgary Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson’s name has come up in news.
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The Swede has stated that he would like to remain in Calgary and reports have surfaced that the Flames have no intentions of trading him, which is the right call for several reasons.  There are several valid reasons why moving Andersson for assets may be a good idea.
Still, the best course of action for the Flames is to keep Rasmus Andersson.
<h2>Rasmus Andersson is still a good defenceman</h2>
Although the Flames are in a rebuilding period, they have been incredibly competitive and are in a postseason spot as I write this. Four games past the midway mark of the season, the Flames have a 22-16-7 record with 51 points, one ahead of the Vancouver Canucks and three ahead of the St. Louis Blues, Andersson has been a big reason for that.
This season, the 28-year-old right-shot defenceman has six goals and 18 points in 45 games. He’s on pace to match his career-high of 11 goals but is on pace to finish with his lowest points-per-game output since the 2019-20 season.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
🔥FLAMES GOAL🔥
Rasmus Andersson scores on the power play and gives a wave to the Gaudreau&#39;s in the stands! 
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL <a href="https://t.co/sR4LW3lWkU">pic.twitter.com/sR4LW3lWkU</a>
&mdash; Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) <a href="https://twitter.com/RingOfFireCGY/status/1864150193383592440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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A lot of those points came in not just a hot start for Andersson, but also for the Flames. Through his first 11 games this season, Andersson had four goals and 11 points and was leading the team at the time. This helped them start with a 5-0-1 record, before a four-game losing streak and an additional win to start the season 6-4-1 in those 11 games. 
Since then, he has just two goals and 7 points over his past 32 games while being a minus-12, not particularly great. However, a defenceman’s primary job is to defend, not put up points. Andersson has a track record of collecting points, even if his scoring has dropped like a rock, but he’s also been an important defender for the Flames all season.
Digging deeper into his advanced stats this season, Andersson has a 50.00% goal share in five-on-five action, with a 49.50% expected goal share. When he’s on the ice during five-on-five play, the Flames are being slightly outshot in terms of high-danger opportunities (137 to 149), while they’ve been outscored 20 to 16 in high-danger scenarios. <a href="https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20242025&amp;thruseason=20242025&amp;stype=2&amp;sit=5v5&amp;score=all&amp;stdoi=oi&amp;rate=n&amp;team=CGY&amp;pos=S&amp;loc=B&amp;toi=0&amp;gpfilt=none&amp;fd=&amp;td=&amp;tgp=410&amp;lines=single&amp;draftteam=ALL">All of this is according to Natural Stat Trick</a>.
With that being said, Andersson has played 281.3 minutes against “elite” competition according to Woodmoney. In terms of percentages, he plays 37.5% of his ice time against the best players, tied with his defence partner Kevin Bahl for the highest percentage of any Flames’ defenceman. His ice time is slightly higher than Bahl’s for the most on the team against elite players, <a href="https://puckiq.com/woodmoney?season=20242025&amp;tier=Elite&amp;positions=all&amp;team=cgy&amp;group_by=player_season_team&amp;sort=ctoipct&amp;sort_direction=desc">according to Woodmoney</a>.
Of course, Andersson also plays in all situations. He and Bahl make up the Flames’ top pairing, with MacKenzie Weegar and Joel Hanley also playing significant minutes on the second pair. Andersson quarterbacks the second unit on the power play and is on the first penalty kill unit <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/teams/calgary-flames/line-combinations">according to Daily Faceoff’s daily line tool</a>.
<h2>Trading the best player in a trade doesn’t work out often</h2>
Usually, when a team gives up the best player in a trade, they tend not to “win” that deal. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, such as the Jarome Iginla trade back in the 1990s, albeit both the Flames and Dallas Stars benefited from that trade. A recent example in Flames history is the Elias Lindholm trade, as it looks like an absolute haul for the Flames, but even that is yet to be determined.
Thanks to FlamesNation’s Throwback Tuesday and Oilersnation’s Throwback Thursday, I’ve done a lot of research on trade trees this season. I can tell you that most of the time after the initial trade, the return dwindles down.
<a href="https://flamesnation.ca/news/throwback-tuesday-looking-at-al-macinnis-career-with-the-flames-and-blues">Look at the Al MacInnis transaction back in 1994 for example</a>. While it’s a different situation as he was offer sheeted by the St. Louis Blues, the Flames received Phil Housley and two second-round picks in compensation. Housley was traded less than two years later for three players, two of which (Tommy Albelin and Cale Hulse) played a significant number of games for the Flames, but they weren’t Al MacInnis.
Those picks and prospects certainly could help in the rebuild, especially when a player is disgruntled. However, the Flames’ 2024 draft was fantastic, they’ll have two first-round picks the next two years, and Andersson wants to stay. There’s no reason not to keep a talented player considering the risks of the trade not panning out and the team being in the position they are in now.
If the Flames can’t re-sign him when he’s eligible for a contract extension and the team is at the bottom of the standings by the 2026 trade deadline, it makes more sense to pull the trigger then, even with a lesser return.
<h2>Leadership from the past core is needed</h2>
Even then, it’s worth it to keep Andersson on the team. Forgetting the fact he’d generate a haul this trade deadline, forgetting that the team has a ton of defensive prospects like Henry Mews, Zayne Parekh, Étienne Morin, and Hunter Brzustewicz, the Flames need from a past core. Not all of those prospects are guaranteed to work out and even if they do, it’d benefit the Flames greatly to keep Andersson as a way to pass the torch.
Two Canadian teams exemplify this perfectly &#8211; the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers. Both teams had a rebuild for the past two decades with varying levels of success. 
Starting with the Senators, they made the playoffs 16 times in 20 years, heading to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007 with Daniel Alfredsson as the team’s captain and best player. Throughout the Swede’s career, Alfredsson’s leadership core featured Jason Spezza, Chris Neil, and Chris Phillips, while having a rotating cast of talented players like Alexei Yashin, Dany Heatley, Marián Hossa, Mike Fisher, Martin Havlát, and Antoine Vermette to name a few.
Alfredsson was at the tail-end of his career when they selected Erik Karlsson 15th overall in the 2008 draft. Karlsson went on to score 126 goals and 518 points in 627 games with the Senators, winning two Norris Trophies with the team (and one with the Sharks).
His final full season with the Senators was in 2016-17 when they were within a goal of making it to the Stanley Cup Finals for a date with the underwhelming Nashville Predators. Karlsson, among others like Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Dion Phaneuf were traded over the next few seasons, leaving a leadership vacuum in the organization.
Fast forward to now, and the team has plenty of young talented players like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot, Ridly Greig, and others. Yet, despite their best efforts to sign veterans like Claude Giroux and David Perron, and trade first-rounders for Alex DeBrincat and Jakob Chychrun, they haven’t been back to the post-season since 2017.
As for the Oilers, they were the eight-seeded team in the 2006 post-season and went on a Cinderella Run, falling 3-1 in Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Shortly after, they traded Chris Pronger for a package that included the pick used to select Jordan Eberle. Before the 2007 trade deadline, they traded Ryan Smyth as they couldn’t agree to a contract with the fan-favourite.
The Oilers nearly made the post-season in 2007-08, but it all went downhill after that. They still had veterans like Shawn Horcoff, Aleš Hemský, and Ethan Moreau on the team, but they lacked the skill Alfredsson had. By the start of the 2013-14 season, all three veterans were off the team and the Oilers had three lacklustre first overall picks to show for it. There was no passing of the torch.
Of course, the Oilers heavily benefited from landing a generational talent like Connor McDavid, while picking Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with high-overall picks. However, from 2010-11 until 2014-15, it was a similar situation to what the Senators have now.
In McDavid’s sophomore season, the Oilers ended their 11-season playoff drought and even made it to the second round. Aside from that series victory against the Sharks though, they didn’t win another post-season round until 2022.
Those two teams aren’t the only examples, as you can also point to Chicago (who traded Kane and never re-signed Jonathan Toews), the Detroit Red Wings (who refused to rebuild), and the Buffalo Sabres (genuinely who knows at this point) as other teams with a lack of leadership.
In short, keeping Rasmus Andersson is the best idea for the Flames, as he can help with the development of prospect defenders he’s still playing at a high-level, the Flames are in a post-season fight, and they need a way to pass the torch when those prospects are ready.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.
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In recent times, Calgary Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson’s name has come up in news.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2109" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="328"></div>
The Swede has stated that he would like to remain in Calgary and reports have surfaced that the Flames have no intentions of trading him, which is the right call for several reasons.  There are several valid reasons why moving Andersson for assets may be a good idea.

Still, the best course of action for the Flames is to keep Rasmus Andersson.
<h2>Rasmus Andersson is still a good defenceman</h2>
Although the Flames are in a rebuilding period, they have been incredibly competitive and are in a postseason spot as I write this. Four games past the midway mark of the season, the Flames have a 22-16-7 record with 51 points, one ahead of the Vancouver Canucks and three ahead of the St. Louis Blues, Andersson has been a big reason for that.

This season, the 28-year-old right-shot defenceman has six goals and 18 points in 45 games. He’s on pace to match his career-high of 11 goals but is on pace to finish with his lowest points-per-game output since the 2019-20 season.

https://twitter.com/RingOfFireCGY/status/1864150193383592440

A lot of those points came in not just a hot start for Andersson, but also for the Flames. Through his first 11 games this season, Andersson had four goals and 11 points and was leading the team at the time. This helped them start with a 5-0-1 record, before a four-game losing streak and an additional win to start the season 6-4-1 in those 11 games. 

Since then, he has just two goals and 7 points over his past 32 games while being a minus-12, not particularly great. However, a defenceman’s primary job is to defend, not put up points. Andersson has a track record of collecting points, even if his scoring has dropped like a rock, but he’s also been an important defender for the Flames all season.

Digging deeper into his advanced stats this season, Andersson has a 50.00% goal share in five-on-five action, with a 49.50% expected goal share. When he’s on the ice during five-on-five play, the Flames are being slightly outshot in terms of high-danger opportunities (137 to 149), while they’ve been outscored 20 to 16 in high-danger scenarios. <a href="https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20242025&amp;thruseason=20242025&amp;stype=2&amp;sit=5v5&amp;score=all&amp;stdoi=oi&amp;rate=n&amp;team=CGY&amp;pos=S&amp;loc=B&amp;toi=0&amp;gpfilt=none&amp;fd=&amp;td=&amp;tgp=410&amp;lines=single&amp;draftteam=ALL">All of this is according to Natural Stat Trick</a>.

With that being said, Andersson has played 281.3 minutes against “elite” competition according to Woodmoney. In terms of percentages, he plays 37.5% of his ice time against the best players, tied with his defence partner Kevin Bahl for the highest percentage of any Flames’ defenceman. His ice time is slightly higher than Bahl’s for the most on the team against elite players, <a href="https://puckiq.com/woodmoney?season=20242025&amp;tier=Elite&amp;positions=all&amp;team=cgy&amp;group_by=player_season_team&amp;sort=ctoipct&amp;sort_direction=desc">according to Woodmoney</a>.

Of course, Andersson also plays in all situations. He and Bahl make up the Flames’ top pairing, with MacKenzie Weegar and Joel Hanley also playing significant minutes on the second pair. Andersson quarterbacks the second unit on the power play and is on the first penalty kill unit <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/teams/calgary-flames/line-combinations">according to Daily Faceoff’s daily line tool</a>.
<h2>Trading the best player in a trade doesn’t work out often</h2>
Usually, when a team gives up the best player in a trade, they tend not to “win” that deal. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, such as the Jarome Iginla trade back in the 1990s, albeit both the Flames and Dallas Stars benefited from that trade. A recent example in Flames history is the Elias Lindholm trade, as it looks like an absolute haul for the Flames, but even that is yet to be determined.

Thanks to FlamesNation’s Throwback Tuesday and Oilersnation’s Throwback Thursday, I’ve done a lot of research on trade trees this season. I can tell you that most of the time after the initial trade, the return dwindles down.

<a href="https://flamesnation.ca/news/throwback-tuesday-looking-at-al-macinnis-career-with-the-flames-and-blues">Look at the Al MacInnis transaction back in 1994 for example</a>. While it’s a different situation as he was offer sheeted by the St. Louis Blues, the Flames received Phil Housley and two second-round picks in compensation. Housley was traded less than two years later for three players, two of which (Tommy Albelin and Cale Hulse) played a significant number of games for the Flames, but they weren’t Al MacInnis.

Those picks and prospects certainly could help in the rebuild, especially when a player is disgruntled. However, the Flames’ 2024 draft was fantastic, they’ll have two first-round picks the next two years, and Andersson wants to stay. There’s no reason not to keep a talented player considering the risks of the trade not panning out and the team being in the position they are in now.

If the Flames can’t re-sign him when he’s eligible for a contract extension and the team is at the bottom of the standings by the 2026 trade deadline, it makes more sense to pull the trigger then, even with a lesser return.
<h2>Leadership from the past core is needed</h2>
Even then, it’s worth it to keep Andersson on the team. Forgetting the fact he’d generate a haul this trade deadline, forgetting that the team has a ton of defensive prospects like Henry Mews, Zayne Parekh, Étienne Morin, and Hunter Brzustewicz, the Flames need from a past core. Not all of those prospects are guaranteed to work out and even if they do, it’d benefit the Flames greatly to keep Andersson as a way to pass the torch.

Two Canadian teams exemplify this perfectly - the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers. Both teams had a rebuild for the past two decades with varying levels of success. 

Starting with the Senators, they made the playoffs 16 times in 20 years, heading to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007 with Daniel Alfredsson as the team’s captain and best player. Throughout the Swede’s career, Alfredsson’s leadership core featured Jason Spezza, Chris Neil, and Chris Phillips, while having a rotating cast of talented players like Alexei Yashin, Dany Heatley, Marián Hossa, Mike Fisher, Martin Havlát, and Antoine Vermette to name a few.

Alfredsson was at the tail-end of his career when they selected Erik Karlsson 15th overall in the 2008 draft. Karlsson went on to score 126 goals and 518 points in 627 games with the Senators, winning two Norris Trophies with the team (and one with the Sharks).

His final full season with the Senators was in 2016-17 when they were within a goal of making it to the Stanley Cup Finals for a date with the underwhelming Nashville Predators. Karlsson, among others like Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Dion Phaneuf were traded over the next few seasons, leaving a leadership vacuum in the organization.

Fast forward to now, and the team has plenty of young talented players like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot, Ridly Greig, and others. Yet, despite their best efforts to sign veterans like Claude Giroux and David Perron, and trade first-rounders for Alex DeBrincat and Jakob Chychrun, they haven’t been back to the post-season since 2017.

As for the Oilers, they were the eight-seeded team in the 2006 post-season and went on a Cinderella Run, falling 3-1 in Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Shortly after, they traded Chris Pronger for a package that included the pick used to select Jordan Eberle. Before the 2007 trade deadline, they traded Ryan Smyth as they couldn’t agree to a contract with the fan-favourite.

The Oilers nearly made the post-season in 2007-08, but it all went downhill after that. They still had veterans like Shawn Horcoff, Aleš Hemský, and Ethan Moreau on the team, but they lacked the skill Alfredsson had. By the start of the 2013-14 season, all three veterans were off the team and the Oilers had three lacklustre first overall picks to show for it. There was no passing of the torch.

Of course, the Oilers heavily benefited from landing a generational talent like Connor McDavid, while picking Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with high-overall picks. However, from 2010-11 until 2014-15, it was a similar situation to what the Senators have now.

In McDavid’s sophomore season, the Oilers ended their 11-season playoff drought and even made it to the second round. Aside from that series victory against the Sharks though, they didn’t win another post-season round until 2022.

Those two teams aren’t the only examples, as you can also point to Chicago (who traded Kane and never re-signed Jonathan Toews), the Detroit Red Wings (who refused to rebuild), and the Buffalo Sabres (genuinely who knows at this point) as other teams with a lack of leadership.

In short, keeping Rasmus Andersson is the best idea for the Flames, as he can help with the development of prospect defenders he’s still playing at a high-level, the Flames are in a post-season fight, and they need a way to pass the torch when those prospects are ready.

Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.

Sponsored by bet365:
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Why the Flames should keep Rasmus Andersson

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