Heats Up Interest in Calgary Flames Defenseman Rasmus Andersson
Elliotte Friedman on Monday’s edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast on Sportsnet was asked by Kyle Bukauskas about the Calgary Flames and the latest on defenseman Rasmus Andersson.
Writing for NHLRumors.com
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Kyle Bukauskas: “That brings us to Calgary and another defenseman being talked about, and Rasmus Andersson. So that conversation has been there at times this year Elliotte, but maybe not as loud as it could have been, in part because Andersson has played really well this year, and the team started to win a lot in December. So that calms things down here.
But in the end, this is a player whose contract expires this year. I go back to the Euro Tour when we finished in Milan for a few days in August, and Mikael Backlund had a quote, the captain said, he will be sold. We all know that, it’s like they’re preparing for what’s going to happen with their long-time player, something new for Andersson and Calgary?”
Elliotte Friedman: “The only thing I can say is that I heard something new, and I heard this a little bit on Sunday, that it seems like Calgary is getting a little more aggressive in trying to do something.
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Now, there have been stops and starts with this before, so I’m always careful. But there are times when it seems to work better than other times, and one of those times is now. Like, if you look at Andersson’s game log, he’s playing a ton of minutes, and to his credit, he’s played really well this year.
Like, there’s been a few times that I’ve watched him, and I’ve been very impressed, but Kyle, you go back, and you look, he played 25 minutes in the win over Pittsburgh. He played 24 in the loss to Boston. He played 26 at home against Nashville. He had another 26-minute game just after Christmas and a big win over Edmonton.
It’s like he’s playing too much, like there’s no rest night for this boy. Just watching, I think the lowest number of minutes I’ve seen a guy play anywhere on my screen here is 22:40. I see 22:28, but that’s an overtime win in LA. But this is a guy who plays a lot of minutes, and he will play big minutes for Sweden in the Olympics.
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But like I said, I’ve heard there’s a lot of work around him, and I think teams know the Flames are in a window where they’d like to do before the Olympics. It’s interesting. There were reports on social media over the weekend that something was up with Detroit. I don’t know.
One thing about that is that we talked to Quinn Hughes. Like Hughes he wanted to go to the Red Wings. It was one of his favorite bands. But Steve Yzerman wasn’t doing that without an extension. So I would have to think that Detroit would have to know what Andersson was going to sign before they did that.
So Yzerman is such a vault, it’s hard to get a handle on what he’s actually up to. I don’t know. I didn’t get the sense that anything was nearby. I just heard that the noise is starting to get louder. And I think there are teams that would be interested in extending Andersson, just, I don’t get the sense that anyone has permission to talk to him about it, but the buzz is there.
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Noise is definitely removed. Also, there has obviously been a lot of interest in Andersson in the past. The Kings have it, and I still think Vegas needs another defenseman. Big win, big weekend for them. They beat St. They beat San Jose, as we said. But I still think the Kings are looking for another defenseman. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they circled Andersson, too.”
NHLRumors.com Note: The Calgary Flames are reaching the point of selling, but the question is what. It could be soon. But the question is, which teams will be willing to sacrifice to get him? Despite the setback, Andersson played well. Nothing is off the table, but while the Flames may want to do this early, others may want to see what happens to him in the Olympics.
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