Hey everyone! As the worldwide leader in all things NHL salary cap life and love, I want to thank the NHL for giving me something to write about this week! We had a trade of defencemen, so let’s talk about it.
Vegas Golden Knights acquires Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames for Zach Whitecloud, Abram Wiebe, a 2027 1st round pick, and a conditional 2028 2nd round pick (becomes a 2028 first if Vegas wins the Stanley Cup this season). 50% salary retained by Calgary: $2.275M
Finally, after two seasons or more of Rasmus Andersson on the trade block he has finally been dealt to a familiar dance partner for Calgary in the Vegas Golden Knights. I’m not just drawing back to Noah Hanifin being dealt to them as well (also for a first rounder), but to me this transaction goes back to this summer. I rostered Alex Pietrangelo in my salary/dynasty league and once he was ruled out for the season (and maybe more), it became clear that Vegas would at some point be in the market for a defenseman…particularly one that plays well in the offensive zone on the right side, and being on a manageable contract helps. Andersson fits this mold perfectly. Vegas, and stop me if you’ve read this part before, traded away a first rounder this season in return for the 29-year-old d-man. Just for fun, I went back and looked at Vegas first round pick(s) since their inception into the league. Okay, without looking…can anyone name me Vegas’ only first round selection? The answer will be revealed to the audience at the end/when we come back from commercial.
If you’re rostering Andersson in fantasy, then you must have known a trade was inevitable and let’s be honest, the worst case here would have been the Flames scratching him closer to the deadline for an extended period of time (think back to the Jakob Chychrun to Ottawa), and then once Andersson is dealt he sits even longer to meet up with the new club. Instead, he gave everyone on the Flames one last high-five coming off the ice, and we’re right onto the Vegas Golden Knights where even though there has been a small hiccup with immigration, he should be skating alongside his former teammate Noah Hanifin as soon as Thursday against the Bruins. The offensive numbers for Andersson have been good this season following a slow start, and I can only image those numbers improving on a better offensive club in the Golden Knights. While the power play time will decrease as the Knights run a five-forward top PP unit, the even strength opportunities on home ice should land Andersson somewhere near the 50-point mark for the season. This also is going to be beneficial to those rostering Mitch Marner or Pavel Dorofeyev on the current iteration of the Knights’ second line if the second defensive pairing goes out on shifts with that line, as Andersson is solid in transition and good in the offensive zone. For my salary league warriors out there, as far as I’ve dove in on this transaction, I have not seen any numbers as they’d relate to an extension. Anderson is on the final year of his current deal and ultimately this deal could be in the neighborhood of $9M AAV, with the term somewhere near six or seven seasons. That is a significant amount more to balance in salary leagues but remember the salary will rise slightly to help alleviate higher costs on your roster.
For the Flames, I think they made out alright in this trade! Get ready to root for the Knights to win a Cup this season…it’s going to feel strange; I had a similar experience when Chicago sent Marc-Andre Fleury to the Wild with the parameter set similarly where the further that club went in playoffs, the better the pick in return would be. For those rostering Zach Whitecloud, while I understand possibly being a little upset at his new landscape on a club that isn’t in Cup contention, there are positives. Whitecloud is also 29 years old and if I can say anything about his game, he’s a responsible defenseman and good news for you: he’s going to play a boatload of minutes on his new club. This was evident, as in his first game with the Flames he logged 22 minutes of ice time and skated on the power play, which was a rarity for him in Vegas. Granted, it wasn’t much power play time, but something is better than nothing. Whitecloud is the perfect defenseman in a salary league as his contract isn’t in the $4M AAVs making it difficult to roster him with limited offense, and he provides plenty of hits and blocked shots to supply value. I’m not going to pretend that this is 30-point defensemen but on a serviceable AAV, I’ll take the hits and blocks that go with the maybe 12–14-point season.
I also wanted to highlight the young defensive prospect that Calgary got in back in this deal from the Knights as well. If your dynasty is something like mine, then you have a limited number of minors eligible players available to you, and while I’d imagine only leagues that have 15+ minors-eligible spots would likely not currently roster a player like Wiebe, it’s an interesting piece back in return from a team standpoint. Wiebe is currently at the University of North Dakota, which hey, UND is a great spot to grow, but Calgary also has two of his teammates as non-roster draftees in Cade Littler (11 pts in 22 GP) and Cole Reschny (24 pts in 20 GP), whom the Flames selected with the 18th overall pick in last year’s draft. There’s also one name that goes to North Dakota that is likely going to be a high pick as well, and this Flames club has a good chance to be in position to make that selection. This is just something that caught my eye that may help in collecting prospects in your pool.
Now time for our trivia question answer! The last Vegas owned first (and only) round pick…would be Trevor Connelly in 2024. If Vegas does not win the Stanley Cup this season, they would retain their 2028 first. All their previous first round draft picks since 2017, were moved to other clubs.
*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com
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