The Vegas Golden Knights have acquired defenseman Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames ahead of an official trade conversation. The news broke for the first time TSN’s Darren Dreger. The Flames will keep 50% of Andersson’s salary in the deal.
Elliotte Friedman reports that in return, Calgary gets Zach Whitecloud, a 2027 first-round pick, a second in 2027 (which will be a first if Vegas wins the Cup this year), and Abram Weibe (a defenseman at UND).
Frank Seravalli reports that Andersson will be traded to the Golden Knights without a contract extension in place. Previous reports indicated that Vegas wasn’t too concerned about that detail, as the organization assumed the defenseman would be eager to sign. Friedman added: “The chances of him going to Boston ended without an extension; Vegas was always willing to take the chance that they could eventually sign him.”
Vegas has long been believed to be Andersson’s preferred destination, but yesterday the Boston Bruins bid appeared to hit harder and present a potentially stronger offer. Pierre LeBrun reports”Boston had permission to discuss the extension with Andersson, but couldn’t get an extension done. Vegas didn’t have that permission, so an extension hasn’t been negotiated yet. But given that Vegas was at the top of the list for Andersson last summer, I can’t imagine there would be a problem for Vegas ultimately getting that done with Andersson.”
Elliotte Friedman reported during the most recent 32 Thoughts podcast that this trade was close. He explained:
“Calgary has indicated that they want to do this right before the Olympic break, which is three weeks from today. Today is Thursday – the pod falls on Friday – but as we record this, it is Thursday and the Olympic break is three weeks away. There is an Olympic trade deadline on February 4, and I believe the Flames want to get the deal done by then.”
He added: “I also believe that Rasmus Andersson would also like to make the trade happen by then. So I think a lot of effort is being made.” Few should be surprised that it only took a few days for both sides to manage to make it happen.
Andersson has 30 points in 48 games for the Flames this season. He is having a fantastic season and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
More to come…
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