The vultures are circling, rumours swirling, Rasmus Andersson will be traded. It’s seemingly no longer a question of if, but when.

In the wake of the recent reporting that the Flames intend to deal Andersson sooner rather than later, there has been no shortage of speculation as to where he’ll go and mock trades to those teams.

One of the teams linked to Andersson is the Boston Bruins, a suitor that few saw coming. Less than a year ago, they bottomed out and traded away core pieces of their roster. It seemed the Bruins’ long run of competitive seasons had finally come to an end, and they were staring down the barrel of a rebuild. Instead, those pesky Bs have hopped right back on the horse, they currently occupy a playoff spot and are targeting the biggest fish on the market.

All that said, I think Rasmus Andersson would make a spectacular Boston Bruin, his attitude and grit make him built for that market. Boston isn’t exactly a young team either, so Andersson would fit their mold nicely at age 29, the same age as David Pastrnak and just a year older than Charlie McAvoy and Pavel Zacha.

Additionally, the Bruins are pretty short on right-handed defencemen outside of McAvoy. Below him are Henri Jokiharju and Andrew Peeke, so bringing in Andersson would vastly improve their top four. He’d probably slot in on the second pairing and reunite with Nikita Zadorov, as well as playing on the secondary power play and penalty kill units, similarly to the way he’s been deployed in Calgary this season.

Winning the Andersson sweepstakes would give the Bruins a sizable boost, and maybe even vault them into true contender status, but do they have the assets that the Flames would covet in return? The answer is an emphatic yes, they have multiple first-round picks in each of the next two drafts and some quality prospects to boot.

So let’s take a look at trade scenarios.

This trade is along the lines of what’s reportedly been proposed by the Bruins, so we’ll start here.

If reports are accurate, the deal that’s on the table from Boston is a ‘26 first and Lohrei, but I’m adding an extra pick because without it, the return is somewhat underwhelming. With multiple teams vying for Andersson, the Bruins need to up their offer to get the deal done. In other words, if the Flames liked this trade, Andersson would already be on his way to Boston.

Even with Lohrei’s $3.2 million cap hit coming back the other way, Calgary will still have to retain a fraction of Andersson’s $4.55 million to make the deal cap-compliant. They’d only have to retain 10%, but they kick in an extra 20% to sweeten the deal and give Boston some wiggle room.

Lohrei’s a 24-year-old left-handed defenceman currently playing on Boston’s bottom pair and second power play unit while Hampus Lindholm is on the mend. The 6’5”, 218-pounder averages 16:41 minutes a night and has 65 points in 160 games over three seasons with the Bruins. Lohrei’s a good player, but at this point, he’s probably hit his ceiling as a bottom pair d-man with some power play upside.

All in all, this return is just ok for the Flames. The pick is nice, likely to be a mid-to-late first-round selection, but I don’t see Calgary being hot and bothered by Lohrei. Kevin Bahl, Yan Kuznetsov, and Joel Hanley all occupy the Flames’ left side, so I just don’t see the fit unless Hanley is dealt, which is possible.

This would be a dream come true for the Flames, adding two more picks in the first round would give them a total of four in the upcoming draft, alongside their own and the Vegas Golden Knights’. With the way Calgary’s drafted in the previous two drafts, having that many firsts would be monumental towards building for the future, and give them some more leeway to trade up or down depending on who they like.

In order to make it cap-compliant, Calgary retains half of Andersson’s deal in addition to eating Andrew Peekes’ $2.75 million contract that expires in the summer. Peeke would become obsolete with the addition of Andersson, so I doubt the Bruins would have any quarrels with giving him up. The Flames also kick back a third in this year’s draft to get this trade across the finish line.

Toronto’s pick is top 5 protected, so it would take the Leafs falling way out of contention for the conditions to come into play.

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