2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

In my opinion, the extension window is closed when you only have one rumored team that Andersson is willing to extend to. So, I think we are looking at a similar deal like the Hanifin deal.

FWIW Andersson never said he wouldn’t sign anywhere else.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Sandman

You can say that plus/minus is a weak stat, but -38 on a 96-point team, when the next worst was -17, is an indication that something is wrong. Aside from his first dozen games, he did not have a good season.

I did say it is a weak stat and I've backed it up with other stats that showed how he was playing bigger minutes, getting primarily defensive zone starts, and playing the largest chunk of his minutes with Backlund and Coleman as they respectively took a step back in their scoring. (It is hard to get pluses when the forwards aren't scoring)

On the other hand, Weegar had his largest "5v5 TOI With" forwards as Kadri, Huberdeau, Coronato.

+/- could be an indicator but it isn't something you use to draw up conclusions. You move on to more meaningful stats that tell you the story of the season... that's why they have "advanced stats".

[Macindoc]

The other thing about Andersson is that he was playing first pairing minutes and matchups with a third pairing partner, all the while playing through injuries.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Wolven

I did say it is a weak stat and I've backed it up with other stats that showed how he was playing bigger minutes, getting primarily defensive zone starts, and playing the largest chunk of his minutes with Backlund and Coleman as they respectively took a step back in their scoring. (It is hard to get pluses when the forwards aren't scoring)

On the other hand, Weegar had his largest "5v5 TOI With" forwards as Kadri, Huberdeau, Coronato.

+/- could be an indicator but it isn't something you use to draw up conclusions. You move on to more meaningful stats that tell you the story of the season... that's why they have "advanced stats".

You could drum up all the advanced stats you want, but it still doesn't explain how he was 3rd-worst in the entire NHL for plus/minus, on a 96-point team. It's a weak stat, but not entirely useless, or they would remove it. I love Rasmus, but he had a bad year- and while injuries obviously plagued him all year long, he may not be worth quite as much as we think in a trade because of that.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by Macindoc

FWIW Andersson never said he wouldn’t sign anywhere else.

Well, he hasn’t exactly been open to an extension either. If he did, he would’ve been on the other team by now, give how meh the UFA pool was.

[Rhett44]

I understand Zary asking for more. If Coronato is making 6.5, I can understand Zary wanting at least 4.

Coronato has the better projection, and better points per game, but I do not believe Coronato is twice the player Zary is.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by rhett44

i understand zary asking for more. If coronato is making 6.5, i can understand zary wanting at least 4.

Coronato has the better projection, and better points per game, but i do not believe coronato is twice the player zary is.

1000%.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Sandman

You could drum up all the advanced stats you want, but it still doesn't explain how he was 3rd-worst in the entire NHL for plus/minus, on a 96-point team. It's a weak stat, but not entirely useless, or they would remove it. I love Rasmus, but he had a bad year- and while injuries obviously plagued him all year long, he may not be worth quite as much as we think in a trade because of that.

You're killing me Sandman... but here it goes.

Celebrini had a -31 and Bedard was -36 and -44 in his last two seasons. Does that mean those guys have lost value? Nah.

Same goes for Andersson. He is playing on a team that went from a really deep D group (Andersson, Hanifin, Tanev, Weegar, Zadorov) and moved out the majority of those guys and replaced them with Hanley off waivers, Pachal, Bean, Bahl, Miromanov. (Bahl turned out to have a great season and I think he has a lot of potential still, but he was not a Hanifin replacement last season.)

Because of the changes in the group, Andersson went from being the 'offensive top pair that was deployed in the O zone more' to being the 'shut down guy that was deployed in the D zone with the Backlund shutdown line'. And on top of all of that, the Flames were the 6th worst scoring team in the league.

You keep mentioning the 96 point season, but that is irrelevant to +/-. What you should note is that the team was very low scoring with only 225 goals for. 6th worst in the league. And the two guys on the team who put up the most goals were playing with Weegar more so than Andersson. The difference wasn't small 35+28 goals vs. 15+15 goals.

All of this is going on and I don't even mention the injuries... which just speaks how much of a warrior he is. Honestly, that should drive his value up even more.

When you get right into it, I seriously doubt a pro scout or GM, who can digest all of these stats waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than I can, is going to look at +/- at all. They will likely dismiss a lot of this last season as a result of what the team is doing (and the injuries) and possibly acknowledge that Andersson was one of the reasons the Flames overperformed and were not in the bottom 5 last year.

My 2 cents.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Wolven

Isn't 3 years the exact term the team wants to avoid?

No, he will still have one RFA year left after 3 years.

[Samonadreau]

Anderson had a rough season by his standards.

And Celebrini and Bedard are teenagers playing on the worst teams in the league going up against other teams top players.

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Other factors played into his -38, but he had a rough season.

[Rhett44]

Andersson's +/- is a combination of playing below expectations to his standards and bad luck. When Bahl went down, it took a big hit, he was on the ice for lots of empty net goals against as well. He also had some bad luck with expected goals being much higher than some teammates when on the ice, but actual goals was low in comparison.

He is not a bad player because of the +/-. He is a second pairing dman who had to play more minutes because of our depth. I also think he was dealing with an injury.

Ideally, he is a good 2nd pairing guy when paired with another solid defenseman. I don't think he is a washed player, but I also don't believe he is a 1st pairing on most teams.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by getbak

No, he will still have one RFA year left after 3 years.

So did Chucky, I hate 3 year bridges because the player can walk to UFA just by accepting the QO

[Groot]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Andersson's +/- is a combination of playing below expectations to his standards and bad luck. When Bahl went down, it took a big hit, he was on the ice for lots of empty net goals against as well. He also had some bad luck with expected goals being much higher than some teammates when on the ice, but actual goals was low in comparison.

He is not a bad player because of the +/-. He is a second pairing dman who had to play more minutes because of our depth. I also think he was dealing with an injury.

Ideally, he is a good 2nd pairing guy when paired with another solid defenseman. I don't think he is a washed player, but I also don't believe he is a 1st pairing on most teams.

Andersson had a bad season due to a variety of factors. You still would not be able to name 50 defensemen ahead of Andersson. He may not be an elite #1, nor should he be the go-to #1 guy but he's absolutely a top-pair defenseman on any team, and if a team has a top-pair that can push Andersson to a 2nd pair spot then he's an elite #2 RD and that team has one of the better defensive corps in the league.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Ideally, he is a good 2nd pairing guy when paired with another solid defenseman. I don't think he is a washed player, but I also don't believe he is a 1st pairing on most teams.

I see Andersson as the epitome of a 2/3 D.

He can be the supplementary guy on the first pairing. If you have two really good defencemen you want to split them up to have one on the ice as often as possible, and Andersson is quite good enough to play second banana to a #1 D. (Back in the day, the Flames never used to have MacInnis and Suter together at even strength. Their third-best D was usually on the top pairing.)

If you have an adequate #4 D, Andersson can be the guy who carries the mail on the second pairing. That seemed to be the case last season when he was paired with Bahl; but that pair drew the toughest assignments too often to really play the role of a second pair. Weegar-and-whoever was often no better than Andersson-and-Bahl. Andersson-and-whoever took a shellacking.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Wolven

You're killing me Sandman... but here it goes.

Celebrini had a -31 and Bedard was -36 and -44 in his last two seasons. Does that mean those guys have lost value? Nah.

Same goes for Andersson. He is playing on a team that went from a really deep D group (Andersson, Hanifin, Tanev, Weegar, Zadorov) and moved out the majority of those guys and replaced them with Hanley off waivers, Pachal, Bean, Bahl, Miromanov. (Bahl turned out to have a great season and I think he has a lot of potential still, but he was not a Hanifin replacement last season.)

Because of the changes in the group, Andersson went from being the 'offensive top pair that was deployed in the O zone more' to being the 'shut down guy that was deployed in the D zone with the Backlund shutdown line'. And on top of all of that, the Flames were the 6th worst scoring team in the league.

You keep mentioning the 96 point season, but that is irrelevant to +/-. What you should note is that the team was very low scoring with only 225 goals for. 6th worst in the league. And the two guys on the team who put up the most goals were playing with Weegar more so than Andersson. The difference wasn't small 35+28 goals vs. 15+15 goals.

All of this is going on and I don't even mention the injuries... which just speaks how much of a warrior he is. Honestly, that should drive his value up even more.

When you get right into it, I seriously doubt a pro scout or GM, who can digest all of these stats waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than I can, is going to look at +/- at all. They will likely dismiss a lot of this last season as a result of what the team is doing (and the injuries) and possibly acknowledge that Andersson was one of the reasons the Flames overperformed and were not in the bottom 5 last year.

My 2 cents.

I think you're over simplifying a couple of things. Does plus minus tell the entire story? Of course not, so let's dive deeper. Andersson in all situations had an on ice goal differential of -57 last year with an expected goal differential of -27.4, Weegar in contrast had a goal differential of +30 with an expected goal differential of +10.2. You mentioned Celebrini his goal differential in all situations was -5, with an expected goal differential of +11.3. Bedard's goal differential is +5 thanks to his contribution on the PP, and his expected is -10.8. So both Celebrini and Berard offset their minuses a bit on special teams, and they're young enough that you expect their defensive game to get better.

High danger shot attempts against per 60 (all situations, and 5 on 5):
Andersson 4.26, 2.49
Bahl 3.46, 2.23
Weegar 3.25, 2.07

Expected goals against per 60:
Andersson 3.83, 2.65
Bahl 3.46, 2.6
Weegar 2.98, 2.24

Those numbers would make any scout GM pause to consider what they're getting. The last time Calgary was in the playoffs Andersson was also a -10.Here's the breakdown:
Game 5(EDM 5 : 4 CGY) 0GF, 5GA(4EV, 1PP)
Game 4(EDM 5 : 3 CGY) 1GF(SH), 1GA(EV)
Game 3(EDM 4 : 1 CGY) 1GF(EV), 2GA(EV)
Game 2(EDM 5 : 3 CGY) 1GF(PP), 3GA(1EV, 1PP, 1SH)
Game 1(EDM 6 : 9 CGY) 6GF(4EV, 1PP, 1EN), 3GA(EV)
---
Game 7(DAL 2 : 3 CGY) 0GF, 2GA(EV)
Game 6(DAL 4 : 2 CGY) 1GF(EV), 1GA(EN)
Game 5(DAL 1 : 3 CGY) 0GF, 0GA
Game 4(DAL 1 : 4 CGY) 2GF(1EV, 1PP), 1GA(PP)
Game 3(DAL 4 : 2 CGY) 0GF, 3GA(1EV, 1PP, 1EN)
Game 2(DAL 2 : 0 CGY) 0GF, 2GA(1EV 1EN)
Game 1(DAL 0 : 1 CGY) 1GF(PP), 0GA
---
In total: 12GP: 13GF - 23GA.
Even strength without empty net goals: 7GF - 16GA

I'm not a pro scout either, but I am weary of how Andersson defends top players. After watching Gio and Tanev make it seem easy for years I have a hard time considering Andersson as a guy that can shut down top competition on a nightly basis. I still like other aspects of Andersson's game and think he's a great human, but IMO he needs a top C and a D partner that can cover for him when the going gets tough.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Wolven

You're killing me Sandman... but here it goes.

Celebrini had a -31 and Bedard was -36 and -44 in his last two seasons. Does that mean those guys have lost value? Nah.

Same goes for Andersson. He is playing on a team that went from a really deep D group (Andersson, Hanifin, Tanev, Weegar, Zadorov) and moved out the majority of those guys and replaced them with Hanley off waivers, Pachal, Bean, Bahl, Miromanov. (Bahl turned out to have a great season and I think he has a lot of potential still, but he was not a Hanifin replacement last season.)

Because of the changes in the group, Andersson went from being the 'offensive top pair that was deployed in the O zone more' to being the 'shut down guy that was deployed in the D zone with the Backlund shutdown line'. And on top of all of that, the Flames were the 6th worst scoring team in the league.

You keep mentioning the 96 point season, but that is irrelevant to +/-. What you should note is that the team was very low scoring with only 225 goals for. 6th worst in the league. And the two guys on the team who put up the most goals were playing with Weegar more so than Andersson. The difference wasn't small 35+28 goals vs. 15+15 goals.

All of this is going on and I don't even mention the injuries... which just speaks how much of a warrior he is. Honestly, that should drive his value up even more.

When you get right into it, I seriously doubt a pro scout or GM, who can digest all of these stats waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than I can, is going to look at +/- at all. They will likely dismiss a lot of this last season as a result of what the team is doing (and the injuries) and possibly acknowledge that Andersson was one of the reasons the Flames overperformed and were not in the bottom 5 last year.

My 2 cents.

I appreciate your opinions and insight, Wolvie. We'll have to agree to disagree a bit on this one.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

I think you're over simplifying a couple of things. Does plus minus tell the entire story? Of course not, so let's dive deeper. Andersson in all situations had an on ice goal differential of -57 last year with an expected goal differential of -27.4, Weegar in contrast had a goal differential of +30 with an expected goal differential of +10.2. You mentioned Celebrini his goal differential in all situations was -5, with an expected goal differential of +11.3. Bedard's goal differential is +5 thanks to his contribution on the PP, and his expected is -10.8. So both Celebrini and Berard offset their minuses a bit on special teams, and they're young enough that you expect their defensive game to get better.

High danger shot attempts against per 60 (all situations, and 5 on 5):
Andersson 4.26, 2.49
Bahl 3.46, 2.23
Weegar 3.25, 2.07

Expected goals against per 60:
Andersson 3.83, 2.65
Bahl 3.46, 2.6
Weegar 2.98, 2.24

Those numbers would make any scout GM pause to consider what they're getting. The last time Calgary was in the playoffs Andersson was also a -10.Here's the breakdown:
Game 5(EDM 5 : 4 CGY) 0GF, 5GA(4EV, 1PP)
Game 4(EDM 5 : 3 CGY) 1GF(SH), 1GA(EV)
Game 3(EDM 4 : 1 CGY) 1GF(EV), 2GA(EV)
Game 2(EDM 5 : 3 CGY) 1GF(PP), 3GA(1EV, 1PP, 1SH)
Game 1(EDM 6 : 9 CGY) 6GF(4EV, 1PP, 1EN), 3GA(EV)
---
Game 7(DAL 2 : 3 CGY) 0GF, 2GA(EV)
Game 6(DAL 4 : 2 CGY) 1GF(EV), 1GA(EN)
Game 5(DAL 1 : 3 CGY) 0GF, 0GA
Game 4(DAL 1 : 4 CGY) 2GF(1EV, 1PP), 1GA(PP)
Game 3(DAL 4 : 2 CGY) 0GF, 3GA(1EV, 1PP, 1EN)
Game 2(DAL 2 : 0 CGY) 0GF, 2GA(1EV 1EN)
Game 1(DAL 0 : 1 CGY) 1GF(PP), 0GA
---
In total: 12GP: 13GF - 23GA.
Even strength without empty net goals: 7GF - 16GA

I'm not a pro scout either, but I am weary of how Andersson defends top players. After watching Gio and Tanev make it seem easy for years I have a hard time considering Andersson as a guy that can shut down top competition on a nightly basis. I still like other aspects of Andersson's game and think he's a great human, but IMO he needs a top C and a D partner that can cover for him when the going gets tough.

Amazing work, gvitaly.

[Sandman]

James Wilson of nhltraderumors thinks the Flames could be one of three teams vying for the services of G Nico Daws from the Devils. Since Markstrom and now Jake Allen are signed for next season, Daws will be pushed out and may want a change. He’s 24, 6’4” and 205lbs, and put up a 1.60 GAA with a .939 SV% in 6 games this season.

Don’t shoot the messenger.

[Ped]

Plus/Minus is often useless when taken on its own, but also consider their teams.

Celebrini was a -31, but there were 12 other Sharks in double-digits, and the minus-31 wasn't even the worst on the team.

Two season ago, there were 17 other Blackhawks besides Bedard in double-digits, and this past season, 16. Bedard was tied for last on his team the first season, and second last in his second

There were only 2 other Flames in double-digits this past season, and if you combined them, Andersson is still the worst by far. The only other full-time defenseman with a minus was Kevin Bahl, with a -6.

The other 5 blueliners who were in the lineup at least semi-regularly had a combined +37