When Calgary Flames blueliner Rasmus Andersson sat down at the podium on Saturday morning for his final press conference of the season with the assembled local media, there were two things he probably expected to be asked about.

One subject was his health and the injury he played through for the last dozen games of the season. The other subject was Andersson’s status following the 2025-26 season as a potential unrestricted free agent.

So when Andersson was asked about his future with the Flames, he was ready to chat about his thought process, even though he noted he hasn’t really had much time to think about it yet.

“You’ve been so busy with the end [of the season], right?” said Andersson. “And it seems like the boring answer, but you’ve been so busy with pushing for playoffs and checking the scores in every other game… And so it’s one of those things where after Worlds, I gotta just sit down with my family and, you know, my parents and my wife, my kids – even though my kids doesn’t understand that – but I have to sit down with my wife and we just gotta talk through everything.”

When he became Flames general manager in the 2022 off-season, Craig Conroy had to juggle a lot of pending unrestricted free agents. He acknowledged Andersson had earned the right to make his upcoming decision on his future when speaking on Saturday afternoon, and Conroy hesitated to place a firm time-frame on when Andersson’s future with the Flames would need to be determined.

“I mean, everybody has a time when they get to a point in their career where they have to make some decisions moving forward,” said Conroy, noting he and Andersson hadn’t really discussed his future. “And we’ll sit down and talk about it and see where he’s at and where we’re at. You know, and if it makes sense to both sides, then we’ll move forward. But I would think something would be done this year, but I don’t want to put a time frame. He has one more year in his contract, too. So, you know, I don’t want to say absolutely it’s going to be something in the next five months.”

Andersson was selected by the Flames in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft – chosen with a draft choice the club acquired from Vancouver for Sven Baertschi. Since making his NHL debut at the end of the 2016-17 season, Andersson has emerged as one of the team’s top blueliners and leaders on and off the ice. He’s played 536 NHL games, all with the Flames, and sits 20th on the all-time leaderboard in that category.

Andersson signed a six year deal in January 2020 as a restricted free agent, and the summer of 2026 would be his first opportunity to be an unrestricted free agent.

“I’ve always loved playing here and I know, you guys, it’s the same cliche as always, but I mean, I’ve been here 10 years now and I’ve loved every second of it,” said Andersson. “And it’s easy when you’re not playing your best to get down on yourself, but at the end of the day, you’re in the NHL and this is the thing you dream about when you’re a kid. And so it’s just one of those things I grew up in Calgary. I’ve been here my whole life. It’s the first big decision of my career. It feels like it’s like, you know, I signed and I think it was January and COVID hit, but I signed a six year deal back then. And that was like a no-brainer for me to sign that contract. And so it feels like this is the first time in my career where I have like a big decision and so I just got to sit down with my family and talk it through. And, you know, Connie and those guys got to do the same thing.”

Andersson expressed his admiration for the city and organization, and while he conceded that he didn’t understand the mentality of the portion of the fanbase that’s “team tank” – “Like no player in NHL ever wants to lose a game. I can guarantee you that. And especially here, losing is never an option.” –  he emphasized he loved Flames fans.

“I can’t stress it enough, I’ve loved every second here and whatever happens, happens,” said Andersson. “And, you know, I understand that it’s a business side of it and, uh, it’s got to make sense for both sides. And they have a number in mind. I have a number in mind. And, you know, I don’t even know what the number is because I haven’t even thought about it for a second, honestly, within the last three months. And, you know, I’ve loved every second of it.”

Andersson’s current deal expires at the end of 2025-26, and carries a $4.55 million cap hit and a six-team no-trade list, per PuckPedia.