When the Calgary Flames take to the ice against the New Jersey Devils on Monday evening, only one player in their lineup will have previously appeared in a playoff game for them.

With his countryman, Rasmus Andersson, headed to join the Vegas Golden Knights after Sunday’s blockbuster trade, team captain Mikael Backlund is now the only active Flame to have played beneath the full force of the C of Red in the spring.

Injured forward Blake Coleman was also around for that fateful 2022 playoff experience, which capped off the Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk era in Calgary in bittersweet fashion, but Andersson’s time in Calgary began all the way back in 2015 and ultimately encompassed three separate trips to the postseason, totalling 27 games. 

In more than a decade as a member of the Flames organization, Andersson has experienced both the exciting climbs and gut-churning free-falls of the NHL’s rollercoaster ride. The Swedish right-hander gave the Flames a solid 584 games over parts of 10 regular seasons. He scored 50 points in 2021-22 and 49 points the year after, and was on pace to exceed both those marks over a full season with the Flames this year. And now, he’s a Golden Knight.

The Flames used the No. 53 overall pick to select Andersson from the OHL’s Barrie Colts at the 2015 NHL Draft. They’d received that pick from the Vancouver Canucks a few months earlier in exchange for Sven Baertschi. Remember him? In the end, Andersson undoubtedly made much more of a mark in Calgary — and he was traded for much more, too.

In return for Andersson, now 29, the Flames received a first-round pick in 2027, a conditional second-round pick the following year, and the rights to defensemen Zach Whitecloud and Abram Wiebe. The condition on the second pick is that it can turn into a first-rounder if Vegas wins the Stanley Cup in 2026. Whitecloud, also 29, was already a Knights mainstay when they won their first and only championship in 2023.

It’s a very strong package for a player who, at this point, is worth more to Vegas as an asset than he was to Calgary. It might be different if the Flames were in a position to contend for a championship of their own at any point in the immediate future. In reality, it’ll be many more years before this team is back in the hunt for a playoff spot, let alone a title.

Right now, the Flames need picks and prospects above all else. They added two more picks in Sunday’s deal, and there’s a very real possibility that they flip Whitecloud for more at some point down the line; Wiebe is a prospect of moderate repute at the University of North Dakota. With Andersson ultimately opting against signing a contract extension with any potential suitor, Flames general manager Craig Conroy did well to command the package he got for his team.

Andersson should be a great fit for the Knights, who needed another righty on their blue line after losing Alex Pietrangelo to an apparent career-ending injury after last season. In Vegas, Andersson will get the chance to reunite with longtime Flames partner Noah Hanifin, who joined the Knights two seasons ago (netting Conroy another first-rounder in the process). As was the case with Hanifin, it won’t be surprising if and when Andersson puts pen to paper on a new deal with Vegas later this season.

The Knights should get great value from Andersson, just as the Flames did over his decade spent in their colours. The Malmö product overcame early concerns about his off-ice preparation and fitness to become as sturdy and consistent a top-four defender as we’ve seen in this city for some time. On the whole, that six-year, $4.55-million contract Andersson signed with the Flames back in 2020 turned out to be a steal.

Andersson exits Calgary with the sixth-most points by a Flames defenceman, with 261, putting him behind only TJ Brodie, Paul Reinhart, Mark Giordano, Gary Suter, and Al MacInnis. Only six other rearguards (Brodie, Giordano, Suter, MacInnis, Jamie Macoun, and Robyn Regehr) have played in more games with the club. But it’s safe to say no Flames defender has ever stared down more opposing fans in the stands than Andersson, who seemingly made it his personal mission to do just that after each goal he scored over his final few seasons in Calgary.

On top of it being potentially unwise for the Flames to commit big dollars and term to a defenceman entering his 30s, they also needed to clear space for some of their younger right-shot rearguards to cut their teeth at the NHL level. We’ve already seen plenty from Hunter Brzustewicz and Zayne Parekh in Flames colours this season; Henry Mews is on his way, and there’s always the possibility of Calgary landing Keaton Verhoeff in this year’s draft, too.

Andersson had to go to make room for some of these guys. The youth movement is officially on in Calgary, with plenty of reasons for excitement on the horizon. But there’ll still be plenty of time in the years to come to reflect on what has been, and it’ll always be impossible to discuss the last decade of Flames hockey without speaking plenty about Rasmus Andersson.

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