Weegar Hints That Andersson Pushed His Way Out of Calgary

MacKenzie Weegar is too smart to say it outright, but if you listen closely, the picture’s pretty clear: Rasmus Andersson didn’t just leave Calgary. He pushed his way out — and the Calgary Flames didn’t have a lot of leverage to stop it.

Hinting that it was clear he was looking to play elsewhere, the Flames aren’t throwing in the towel just because one of their top defensemen is gone.

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Weegar Loved Having Andersson As a Teammate, But…

Weegar goes out of his way to praise Andersson as a teammate. Drafted here. Grew up here. Big personality. Big minutes. A guy you don’t just replace by flipping a switch. “Elite player, Olympian, great for the locker room, big personality that we’ll definitely miss…” Weegar said. All of that matters. It tells you this wasn’t about chemistry or locker-room problems. Nobody was trying to run Andersson out of town.

Then comes the second layer. Weegar talks about how everyone wanted it to work. The team. The players. The organization. That’s not accidental wording. That’s a guy acknowledging that there were real conversations behind closed doors about keeping Andersson in Calgary. Re-signing him. Making it fit.

And then comes the key line, the one that tells you why this trade actually happened.

“It’s a piece that didn’t want to stay, at the end of the day. He wanted to go somewhere else.”

Weegar Hints that the Balance Shifted, and Andersson Wanted to Move On

That’s it. That’s the moment the balance shifts. Once a player of Andersson’s stature decides he’s done waiting, done resetting, done riding out another transition, the clock starts ticking. Calgary knew it. Vegas knew it. Andersson knew it.

At that point, it’s not about liking the player. It’s about not letting the asset walk for nothing. So the Flames did what teams in that spot have to do: they moved him to the place he wanted to go, got their return, and tried to keep the damage under control. That’s not throwing in the towel. That’s damage control. The interesting part is what comes next.

Weegar Doesn’t Blame Andersson, He Lays Down a Team Challenge

Weegar isn’t sulking. He’s almost challenging himself — and the room. He keeps talking about opportunity. For the younger guys and for himself. That’s a veteran defenseman saying, okay, if Andersson’s gone, who’s stepping forward?

The Flames have already exceeded expectations this season, which is why this trade feels uncomfortable. They weren’t supposed to be competitive. And yet they are. That makes losing someone like Andersson sting more, not less.

But it also forces clarity. There’s no more hiding behind the old core. No more waiting for someone else to drive the bus. If this group wants to prove it’s more than a good story, this is the moment. The ice time is there. The responsibility is there. The excuses are gone.

Weegar Accepts the Flames Reality and the Need to Keep Working

Weegar sounds like a guy who knows that. He doesn’t deny the loss. He just accepts the reality and moves on. And maybe that’s the real message of the interview: the Flames didn’t quit — but they did get shoved into a decision.

What happens next will tell us whether this season was a nice surprise… or the start of something real.

Related: Trade Grades: Vegas Does It Again, Lands Rasmus Andersson