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Newly acquired Olli Maatta will wear No. 3 with the Flames
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Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Mike Gould
Mar 5, 2026, 12:30 ESTUpdated: Mar 5, 2026, 12:21 EST
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The Calgary Flames have announced that newly acquired defenceman Olli Maatta will wear No. 3 on the back of his jersey after being acquired from the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday as part of the MacKenzie Weegar trade.
Maatta, 31, has appeared in 22 games with the Mammoth this season, collecting one assist while averaging just 12:10 of ice time. The 6’2″ left-handed defender has been one of the odd men out in Utah for most of the season and, like Weegar, waived his own no-trade clause to facilitate Wednesday’s deal.
The Flames have not had a player on their NHL roster wear No. 3 since the 2022-23 season, when Connor Mackey donned it for all of 10 games before being traded to the Arizona Coyotes with Brett Ritchie in exchange for Troy Stecher and Nick Ritchie.
Maatta previously wore No. 2 with the Mammoth. The Jyvaskyla, Finland product is the second veteran defenceman to switch from No. 2 to a different number after arriving in Calgary this season; Zach Whitecloud picked No. 28 after being acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights in January.
Although it is not officially retired, No. 2 is effectively off-limits in Calgary. Al MacInnis wore it with the Flames from 1983 to 1994, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP after helping the team capture the Stanley Cup in 1989. No Flame has worn No. 2 since MacInnis retired in 2005, and the Flames honoured the Hall of Famer as a member of their “Forever a Flame” program in 2012.
What is the “Forever a Flame” program, and what distinguishes it from the four jersey numbers the Flames have actually retired? Well, it’s confusing. To quote the article from when Whitecloud picked his number:
MacInnis and Joe Nieuwendyk are the only two members of the “Forever a Flame” program, but Nieuwendyk’s No. 25 has frequently been issued to Flames players (including Jacob Markstrom and David Moss) in the years since his own retirement in 2006. Furthermore, Theoren Fleury’s No. 14 is neither retired or honoured by the Flames, but it has not been issued a single time (except to Fleury himself, during his attempted comeback in 2009) since the Flames traded him to the Colorado Avalanche in 1999. How confusing …
Maatta has worn No. 3 as a member of Team Finland at international competitions, including at the 2014 and 2026 Winter Olympics (winning bronze medals at both) and the 4 Nations Face-Off. He also wore it between 2013 and 2019 while playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017.
The Penguins originally selected Maatta in the first round (No. 22 overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft, one spot after the Flames picked Mark Jankowski. A two-time OHL champion with the London Knights, Maatta spent the first six seasons of his NHL career in Pittsburgh before bouncing between the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, and Utah.
In 783 career NHL games over parts of 13 seasons, Maatta has collected 42 goals and 196 points; he’s added five goals and 27 points in 85 playoff contests with Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Maatta is now under contract with the Flames through 2028 at a $3.5 million annual cap hit.

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