The Calgary Flames stayed hot on Monday night, beating the Boston Bruins 2-1 in overtime. It was their fourth win in their last five games, and eighth in their last 11.
This recent hot streak certainly has put them back in the playoff conversation, as they sit one point out of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
However, following this victory against the Bruins, Robert Munnich of Flames Nation raised a good point on X, stating, “Calgary has the most difficult schedule in the NHL after the deadline.”
The general idea of this thread was to suggest that the Flames shouldn’t get caught up in where they are in the standings, as their schedule only gets tougher, and that they should focus on building for the future by moving Rasmus Andersson, something I completely agree with.
Rasmus Andersson Must Be Traded
I’ve been somewhat of an advocate for the Flames not needing to make a ton of moves and giving an honest run at a playoff spot, but Andersson is the one player the Flames can’t afford to keep.
With his contract expiring at the end of the season, he’ll be due for a massive raise, especially considering he sits among the top 20 defencemen in points and seventh in primary points among blueliners in the NHL.
This is the perfect sell-high position for the Flames. He is an offensively gifted, puck-moving, right-shot defenceman. All things that will add a premium to his price tag, to begin with. Now, consider how favourable a seller’s market it could be: with fewer than a handful of teams out of the playoff race as we approach the halfway point of the season, the asking price for Andersson will only go up.
While it will be hard for the Flames management, who we sometimes forget are as much competitors as the players are, to move Andersson, who has been their best player and has dragged them back into the playoff hunt, they should be warming up to the idea of how well Zayne Parekh has played at the World Juniors.
Zayne Parekh Leading Team Canada at World Juniors
Parekh has been on fire for Team Canada at the WJC in Minnesota. He is the only defenceman in the tournament to score three goals so far and is only one point behind Tomas Galvas of Czechia, who leads all defencemen with six.
Related: Guide to the 2026 World Junior Championship
In Canada’s first game of the tournament, Parekh used his elite release twice to score two crucial goals against Czechia to re-take control of that game after falling behind 3-2. He showed off another fantastic release in their game against Denmark, scoring on another wrist shot from the slot.
He has been a key player for this Canadian team, which struggled to get going in its first couple of games against Czechia and Latvia.
The 2024 ninth-overall pick made the Flames out of camp and played 11 games before getting injured in early November. Over this stretch, he only managed to record one assist, but it’s hard to blame him, considering the Flames were barely scoring two goals a game at this point in time.
Andersson Trade Will Allow Parekh to Thrive
People may have been underwhelmed by Parekh’s performance through the first part of the season. However, he was playing a very sheltered role, only getting just over 11 minutes per game at five-on-five and some time on the Flames’ power-play unit, but not given the trust to quarterback it.
It’s understandable that the Flames wanted to let Parekh get his feet wet before giving him a prominent role, and to be even more fair, Mackenzie Weegar and Andersson are two of the better right-shot blueliners in the NHL.
However, in his limited role earlier this season, the Flames had a 57.89 scoring chance share, a 55.29 expected goal share, and a 66.67 percent goal share with Parekh on the ice. The offensive production wasn’t there on the stat sheet, but you could see the start of the impact with him averaging over three shot attempts per game in less than 15 minutes per game.
This, along with the Parekh lighting it up for Team Canada at the WJC, should have the Flames thinking he can be trusted to move into Andersson’s role once he is moved.
The drop-off from Andersson to Parekh will be there, but not for long. He’ll learn quickly once given the minutes to figure out what works and what doesn’t on the blue line at the NHL level.
They just need to remove the roadblock that is Andersson and bring back a boatload of assets to help the Flames continue to build around Parekh without getting caught up in where they are sitting in the standings.
