{"id":415351,"date":"2026-01-19T03:42:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/415351\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T03:42:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:42:28","slug":"winner-golden-knights-trade-for-andersson-grades-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/415351\/","title":{"rendered":"WINNER! Golden Knights Trade for Andersson: Grades & Reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, while most of America was watching the New England Patriots defeat the Houston Texans in the AFC Divisional Round, the Vegas Golden Knights traded for a top-four defenseman. They\u00a0acquired Rasmus Andersson<\/a>\u00a0from the Calgary Flames for Zach Whitecloud and two draft picks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This move isn\u2019t unexpected\u2014 they\u2019ve apparently been circling Andersson for months. However, the trade materialized very quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours before, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Boston Bruins were \u201cin the driver\u2019s seat\u201d for the defenseman on Sportsnet\u2019s Saturday Headlines<\/a>. Apparently, the Bruins had a stronger offer.\u00a0And yet, the Golden Knights won the bidding war for Andersson.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights are no strangers to beating other teams to the players they wanted. In the past seven years, they\u2019ve wanted Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hertl, and Mitch Marner. All six players went on to don the gold uniform. And now, Rasmus Andersson joins their ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Full Trade:<\/p>\n

To Vegas<\/p>\n

Rasmus Andersson, 50% retained ($2.275<\/a> million cap hit)<\/p>\n

To Calgary<\/p>\n

Zach Whitecloud
2027 1st round pick
2028 2nd round pick, which becomes a 2028 first-rounder if Vegas wins the Stanley Cup in 2026)
Abram Weiss<\/p>\n

Quick Reactions<\/p>\n

On paper, this isn\u2019t a bad trade. Because the Flames retained 50% of Andersson\u2019s salary, the Golden Knights actually gained $475,000 in cap space. That means that when Brayden McNabb is healthy, they\u2019ll have the cap space needed to activate him from IR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights lose a little bit of size and snarl on the back end. Whitecloud was third on the team in both hits (73) and blocked shots (63). Andersson isn\u2019t very physical, but he\u2019s not afraid to put his body on the line and was second on the Flames in blocked shots (90).<\/p>\n

Essentially, the Golden Knights swapped a defensive defenseman for a talented puck mover. Last year, their season ended because they couldn\u2019t score. Andersson helps solve that problem. He\u2019s 10th among defensemen in created expected goals (8.1<\/a>). He has 10 goals and 20 assists\u2013 15 primary\u2013 in 48 games, and he put up those numbers on a Flames team that is tied for\u00a028th<\/a>\u00a0in the league in goals per game.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things might get hairy: Andersson is more of a puck carrier than a distributor. The Golden Knights have quite a few of those in Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hertl, and, of course, Andersson\u2019s soon-to-be defensive partner, Noah Hanifin. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how he adjusts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golden Knights Trade Grade: B<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the Golden Knights saw a need, and they addressed it. They gave Whitecloud and Kaedan Korczak the opportunities to wrestle some of the harder minutes from Shea Theodore, and they didn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andersson is a talented offensive defenseman and will help fill the Alex Pietrangelo-shaped void on the Vegas blue line. He\u2019s a minute-munching defenseman who averaged 24:14 TOI this season with the Flames.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sure, they gave up a lot. But the Golden Knights are in win-now mode, and they don\u2019t care about their futures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With no extension in place, Whitecloud and a first\u2014 potentially two firsts\u2014 really is a substantial return. However, it\u2019s not without precedent. The Golden Knights traded a similar haul to the Flames in 2024 for an unextended Noah Hanifin, and he signed just over a month later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pending Andersson\u2019s extension, this grade will likely improve to at least a B+.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tHannah Kirkell is a beat writer covering the Vegas Golden Knights for Vegas Hockey Now on Sportsnaut. She studied … More about Hannah Kirkell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday, while most of America was watching the New England Patriots defeat the Houston Texans in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[26,149,5317,5,4,4433,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-415351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-calgary-flames","9":"tag-golden-knights","10":"tag-goldenknights","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-nhl-trade","14":"tag-vegas","15":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","16":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115919700236315220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}