The 2025-26 NHL trade season is off to a wild start. That continued Sunday, as the Calgary Flames traded defenseman Rasmus Andersson to the Vegas Golden Knights for a package that included defenseman Zach Whitecloud adn draft picks and a prospect. The Flames are retaining 50 percent of Andersson’s salary.
Previously, the vancouver Canucks traded Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, in exchange for zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick. Earlier in the day, the Pittsburgh Penguins sent goaltender Zach Whitecloud, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2027 second-round pick that becomes a first-round pick if Vegas wins the Stanley Cup, and prospect defenseman Abram Wiebe. The Flames are retaining 50% of Andersson’s salary,and his contract expires after this season.
Let’s take a look at how each front office performed in the NHL’s latest trade.
Golden Knights grade: B+
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This trade had quite a few angles. It starts with why the Golden Knights felt it was necessary to trade for the most sought-after defenseman weeks before the Olympic break.
Vegas is without Alex Pietrangelo for what could be the rest of the season, if not his career, which forced the Golden Knights to navigate the first half of the campaign without a proven, top-four right-handed defenseman who can be trusted to play in every situation.
Thier underlying metrics show that their defensive structure was finding success. They entered Sunday allowing the fewest shots against per 60 minutes, the second fewest high-danger chances allowed per 60, and the ninth fewest scoring chances allowed per 60.
It’s one of the major reasons they enter this week sitting atop the Pacific Division standings, with the eighth-most points of any team in the NHL.
The disconnect has been with their goaltending throughout most of the season. The Golden Knights have a .884 team save percentage in all situations, tied for the third lowest percentage in the NHL.
Maybe more could have been done in net — with the idea that there’s still time ahead of the March 6 deadline. Alternatively, they may believe they have the answer in Akira Schmid,considering he has 15 wins,a 2.45 goals-against average and a 2.90 goals saved above average that is 26th among the 56 goalies with more than 700 minutes played.
But there’s another question: Is there such thing as a team being too good on defense? Especially when there’s been a need to find more consistency in net?
That presents another reality within all the angles of this deal: the Golden Knights’ presumed second defense pairing is good enough to be a top pairing elsewhere.
Adding Andersson to the mix means they’ll likely reunite him with his former Flames defense partner in Noah Hanifin. Andersson and Hanifin were the Flames’ top defense pairing for two-plus seasons before the latter was traded to the Golden Knights during the 2023-24 campaign.
Using that duo did more than just give the Flames a trusted top partnership. It gave them two defenseman who could break each score more than 10 goals, facilitate the puck, and be trusted to play in every possible situation.
