Flames Mailbag: Will Calgary choose to sign or trade Rasmus Andersson?

The Calgary Flames are well into the second quarter of the season and remain competitive in the Pacific division’s playoff picture. At 13-9-5, the Flames enter the weekend in a playoff spot and continue to be one of the league’s bigger surprises.

With Calgary prioritizing youth and the future, many thought they would be closer to a lottery team this year. Instead, thanks to strong goaltending and a great home record, the Flames have been a tough out the vast majority of their first 27 games.

Still, with the Flames prioritizing the big picture, there are plenty of questions about how the rest of this season plays out. We’re diving into a few of them in our latest edition of the mailbag.

We had a similar question in our first mailbag of the season. We’ll probably keep getting them until there’s a definitive answer. And you can understand why.

Rasmus Andersson was the only member of the Flames to be named to a 4 Nations Face-Off roster when he officially made Sweden’s team on Wednesday. He’s also tied for second on the team in scoring with 15 points, near the top of the league in average time on ice, and the NHL’s leader in blocked shots with 80. Most importantly, he’s arguably been Calgary’s MVP this season.

Andersson is eligible for a contract extension starting this summer when he enters the final year of the six-year, $27.3 million he signed in January 2020. There’s no doubt the 28-year-old Andersson would be an attractive trade option if that’s where things end up going. But that’s unlikely to be the best outcome for the Flames.

Calgary drafted Andersson, developed him, and watched him turn into one of the league’s best defencemen. I always believe extending those types of players is the way to go, especially knowing how many others have opted not to remain with the Flames in recent years.

The belief is Calgary is thinking the same way about Andersson, but they’re only half of the equation. If contract talks don’t prove productive or Andersson indicates he’d be interested in testing free agency, you can bet general manager Craig Conroy won’t hesitate to make a trade sometime before the 2026 deadline.

We’ll focus on Al’s first question relating to goaltender Dan Vladar because that’s been a topic in this market since the beginning of training camp.

The Flames goaltending situation currently includes Vladar, Dustin Wolf and AHL standout Devin Cooley. Of the three, only Vladar’s contract expires at the end of this season. As such, Vladar’s name has started to appear on numerous “trade target” lists around the league.

Calgary has gotten solid goaltending through the first third of their season, and Vladar has been a big part of that. The Flames sit second overall with a 0.938 five-on-five save percentage and seventh with a 0.905 at all strengths. Along with Wolf, this has been one of the league’s best tandems.

Trading Vladar is by no means off the table. But there’s also no urgency required in early December.

The Flames, who sit in a playoff spot in large part due to goaltending, can continue letting Cooley cook in the AHL (12-3-0, 0.940 SV percentage) for now. And if the right offer comes along for Vladar (speculated to be a second-round pick), Calgary knows they’ll be dealing from a position of strength.

I’m giving the Flames a solid B so far.

I always give out these grades on somewhat of a sliding scale, generally relative to expectations. And while I wasn’t among those predicting Calgary to be battling at the bottom of the league table, I also didn’t have them sitting somewhat comfortably in a playoff spot a third of the way through.

The biggest surprise has been goaltending, with the above numbers serving as a pleasant surprise. With Wolf and Vladar taking on NHL workloads they’ve never experienced, it was a significant question mark entering the season. And in front of their goalies, the Flames have done a nice job limiting quality scoring chances. Per Natural Stat Trick, Calgary sits 13th overall in limiting high-danger chances at five-on-five.

But it’s an inability to score that keeps the Flames from a higher grade. Following their 4-3 overtime loss to St. Louis Thursday, Calgary has gone 24 consecutive games without scoring three or more goals. The Flames sit 26th overall at 2.56 goals per game, and that’s with a red-hot powerplay. Their five-on-five scoring rate places them 30th ahead of only Detroit and Nashville.

Calgary isn’t ever going to be viewed as an offensive powerhouse. But this lack of even-strength scoring is going to prove more and more detrimental if it’s not improved, even with strong team defence and goaltending.

The Flames got bad injury news earlier this week when Justin Kirkland’s season ended following ACL surgery. In response, the team recalled both Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr from the AHL’s Wranglers. Combined with an Andrei Kuzmenko healthy scratch, Pelletier and Duehr have suited up in each of Calgary’s last two games.

Kirkland’s absence opens the door for Duehr and Pelletier, with the latter being the one to keep an eye on. A 2019 first-round pick, Pelletier failed to make the Flames out of training camp and went through waivers for the first time in his career. After a strong 20 games on the farm, he scored his first NHL goal since March on Thursday night. It was a positive sign for Pelletier, who’s been generally effective in a fourth-line role on this recall.

Pelletier’s challenge is to remain effective. The organization is still unsure exactly what they have in the 23-year-old winger more than five years removed from drafting him. It’s not overstating it to say this could be Pelletier’s last chance to solidify himself at the highest level, at least with the Flames. That makes his first two NHL games this year that much more encouraging.