In order for the Calgary Flames to have been a competitive team from the jump this season, they needed their best players to play like such. With their record at 4-9-2 through 15 games, it’s quite evident that they’ve been anything but through the first chunk of 2025-26.
Not helping matters was that Jonathan Huberdeau missed the opening five games of the season due to injury. He looked a little rusty early on but has since settled in nicely. A two-goal performance on Sunday versus the Philadelphia Flyers has him sitting with eight points through 10 games.
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Perhaps partially due to not having Huberdeau on his wing, Nazem Kadri struggled to begin this season, being unable to find the back of the net through the opening eight games. He’s since scored four goals, and has 11 points through 15 games.
While Kadri and Huberdeau are back to playing as expected, another veteran on this team, one that most would agree is their best overall player, is struggling. That would be none other than MacKenzie Weegar, who, if he wasn’t a well-established veteran, may have already sat out a game or two as a healthy scratch.
Weegar Struggling Immensely
Since arriving with the Flames, Weegar has quickly developed into one of the better defencemen in the entire NHL. The 2023-24 season, his second in Calgary, really helped put him on the radar, as he scored a career-high 20 goals and 52 points, while playing massive minutes in all situations.
Weegar had another very strong 2024-25 season, registering 47 points while again playing monster minutes. He was so good that many felt he had a shot at cracking Canada’s roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Though Weegar wound up falling short in that goal, he was invited to Canada’s Olympic orientation camp in Calgary this past summer, indicating that he was very much on the Olympic radar. That may be changing, however, as he has had a rough start to the 2025-26 season.
Weegar is leading all Flames players with an average of 24:29 minutes per game this season, though aside from the continued heavy minutes, we haven’t seen the same dominant defenceman. He’s struggled offensively with just four assists through 15 games, but perhaps even more shocking are his struggles defensively.
Weegar’s 25 giveaways lead all Flames skaters, and rank eighth amongst all NHLers. He also has a team-worst plus/minus of -11, which is the third worst in the entire league. Whether it’s the pressure of the Olympics weighing on his mind, or perhaps just a rough patch, the Flames desperately need him to get back on track.
The issue for the Flames is that the rest of their blue line aside from Rasmus Andersson doesn’t consist of guys who can log heavy minutes, meaning that Weegar is likely going to continue to get thrown into the fire and will have to figure out a way to turn his game around.
Olympics May Be Out of the Question
As unfortunate as it is, the scouting period this season before announcing Olympic rosters is a rather short one. Teams are expected to announce their rosters early in the new year, meaning that players who have gotten off to hot starts may have the upper hand. There is still time for Weegar to turn things around, but the clock is certainly ticking.
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Regardless of whether or not Weegar cracks the Olympic roster, he simply needs to play better for the Flames. There’s a real argument to be made that he’s the Flames’ best overall skater, and his struggles have had a major impact as to why they’ve started so poorly to begin this 2025-26 season.
