The blueline is going to look a whole lot different this season in Calgary compared to this time last year.

Out the door are Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, Nikita Zadorov and Oliver Kylington.

Joining the new looked defence corps are Kevn Bahl, Jake Bean, Daniil Miromanov, Brayden Pachal, Joel Hanley and Tyson Barrie (if he signs a contract). There is a lot of change which means we are going to see some new defence pairings.

What should the defence pairings look like as we head into the 2024-25 season? Let’s take a look at a couple different options.

The Calgary Flames have two defencemen on the roster who could play on a first pair on most teams in the NHL. That’s MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson. After that there are a lot of question marks. Because of that, it might make sense to put Weegar and Andersson on seperate pairings to ensure one of them is on the ice for at least two thirds of the game.

Those two veteran defencemen can also take a younger, less experienced player under their wing and show them the ropes.

The pairings would look something like this:

Bahl and Andersson have the potential to be a decent shut down pairing for the Calgary Flames. This is the pairing I see taking on the toughest minutes at 5-on-5 and on the penalty kill. They should get matched up against the oppositions top lines.

We all know Andersson can handle that type of workload. But can Bahl keep up in that role? There would likely be some growing pains early on but I believe Bahl can become a legitimate top four defenceman in the NHL. 

Weegar and Miromanov showed some decent chemistry together at the end of last season. They played 296:07 at 5-on-5 in March and April and they put up some strong results especially when you compare them to the rest of the team.

Weegar and Miromanov outperformed the rest of the Flames roster in every major underlying number (available to the public). The most impressive number being they outscored their opposition 12-8 when they were on the ice together. And that wasn’t because they got lucky as their expected goals for percentage was 56.14%.

This pairing could act as a second pair. They can take on the second and third lines of the opposition and leave the high leverage minutes for Andersson and Bahl.

And then you have the third pair which would be made up of Jake Bean on the left and one of Brayden Pachal or Tyson Barrie on the right. That would be a pair Ryan Huska would want to give a lot of offensive zone starts to and some easier matchups.

In this configuration, the Flames would put MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson on the first pair. Those two would likely play 25+ minutes a night and half the game at 5-on-5 which is asking a lot from two players over a gruelling 82 game schedule.

Weegar and Andersson played 755:28 together at 5-on-5 last season and the numbers were below average. They were arguably the two best defencemen on the Flames last year and for them to have the expected goals for percentage (xGF%) and high danger chance percentage (HDCF%) below 50% is concerning.

The Flames would also have two pairings below Weegar and Andersson with a lot of inexperience.

If you’re the Flames, do you want to expose those second and third pairings to top players on the opposition, especially on the road when you don’t get last change? That’s the risk you run by loading up the top pair with Weegar and Andersson. Ryan Huska would be putting a lot of trust in unproven players to play tough minutes at 5-on-5.

I think the best path forward is to spread the wealth and have Weegar and Andersson on different pairings. Having one of those two players on the ice for at least two thirds of the game makes a lot of sense to me. Especially knowing how inexperienced the rest defencemen are on the roster (excluding Barrie).

And if guys like Bahl, Miromanov, or Bean step up and show they are legit top four defencemen, then you could look to put Weegar and Andersson together. But to start the season, they should split up their two studs on the beck end.