Defenseman Rasmus Andersson may prefer to avoid drawing attention to his situation with the Calgary Flames, but that appears to be well beyond his control. Because at this point, the cat is not only out of the bag, it’s coughing up hairballs and shredding the furniture.
Given his status as an unrestricted free agency after the 2025-26 season, Andersson’s name has been floated in trade rumors for several months. It’s likely that Calgary’s proximity to a playoff spot is what kept the 28-year-old veteran and top-four defenseman with the team past last season’s trade deadline.
With Calgary coming painstakingly close to qualifying for the postseason, finishing in ninth place in the Western Conference due to a tiebreaker, conventional wisdom might suggest the need to sign Andersson to a contract extension. However, reports indicated that contentious negotiations between the team and the player have all but eliminated the likelihood of that happening, which only ramped up the trade talk.
But any hopes Andersson may have had of that talk lowering to a whisper with the looming start of training camp were wiped out with comments made recently by Flames captain Mikael Backlund. Talking to reporters during the recent European Player Media Tour in Milan to promote the participation of NHL players in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, Backlund spoke bluntly about how he expects the situation with Andersson to be resolved.
“Yeah, he’s getting traded,” Backlund said. “It’s obvious.”
Will Detroit Take Advantage of Calgary’s ‘Obvious’ Need to Trade Rasmus Andersson?
Backlund made clear his frustration with how things had unfolded, stressing that the players are behind Andersson. But he also made a rather ironic statement regarding Andersson’s feelings as the season approaches.
“I talked to him, too, and he doesn’t want to be a distraction,” Backlund said. “So it’s all good.”
That probably didn’t help to avoid furthering the distraction.
As someone who is proudly half-Swedish – probably more like 45 percent or so from my father’s side, as there may be a dash of Norwegian in there somewhere – I feel that I can empathize with the desire for Andersson, a Malmo, Sweden native, to keep the focus off of himself. Swedes are typically team-oriented people who are averse to conflict and prefer to remain calm and quiet.
So much for that.
As the weeks wind down to the start of the NHL regular season, several teams have a need for a right-handed, two-way defenseman who could hold down a spot on the top pairing. One such team is the Detroit Red Wings.
Detroit Spotlighted as Top Landing Spot for Calgary Defenseman Rasmus Andersson
On Tuesday, Adam Gretz of Bleacher Report examined potential landing spots for Andersson. Noting Detroit’s playoff drought of nine seasons, as well as the team’s remaining salary-cap space of $11.92 million, Gretz questioned general manager Steve Yzerman’s lack of action during the offseason, suggesting that a trade for Andersson should be near the top of his to-do list.
“The Red Wings … have done almost nothing meaningful to make the roster better this offseason,” Gretz surmised. “They can not go into the regular season with this group as is and with that much unused salary cap space.
“Andersson would be a much-needed upgrade on defense and they almost certainly have the trade assets to get him.”
As for the trade assets that would be acceptable for Calgary, Gretz opined that even acquiring Andersson as a one-year rental player, including a first-round pick in the package would likely be “a bare minimum requirement.” Similarly, Jake Rivard of the 313 Hockey blog suggested that a first-round pick plus a prospect would likely be the starting point of the conversation.
If the Flames prefer a defensive prospect in return, William Wallinder might attract their attention. Of the forward prospects, perhaps Carter Mazur would do the trick.
Regardless, there’s little question that Andersson would be a helpful piece in Detroit’s efforts to avoid a 10th season of missing the playoffs.
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