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What the Flames are getting in Olli Määttä
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Photo credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images
Flash Stevens
Mar 5, 2026, 15:30 ESTUpdated: Mar 5, 2026, 13:58 EST
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On Thursday the Calgary Flames made a massive decision and decided to trade defenceman MacKenzie Weegar to the Utah Mammoth. In exchange they amassed a trio of 2nd round draft picks, a centre prospect in Jonathan Castagna, and veteran NHL defenceman Olli Määttä.
Määttä, who is in his 13th professional season, has a long track record as a dependable depth/3rd pair option. Time to learn some more about this new addition to the Flames.

Offence

Lets get this out of the way immediately, it is not expected for Määttä to produce much offence at all. He’s not, nor has he ever, been a guy that you can depend on to lead the rush or bolster an attack. He’ll make smart choices with the puck at the offensive blueline that don’t cause turnovers, but they also don’t lead to much in terms of assistance in creating scoring chances. 


These are the numbers from the last two seasons. To explain these, the blue means there’s a lack of shots from that area when the player is deployed. Darker blue means a real lack of shot attempts relative to league average. Success in this looks red, where darker red indicates more shot attempts. So seeing blue on the defensive charts is good, but seeing it on the offensive side – not the best. 
He’s not going to add much up front, but he does have better strengths elsewhere that make him a regularly playable asset.

Defence

The reason Määttä is still playing after 13 years is because he takes care of business in his own zone. He takes the defence part of defencemen seriously. Here’s a chart of his entire career’s impacts, showcasing 10 straight years – with 5 different teams – of shot suppression success directly in front of the crease. 
It’s been consistent across the board, a reliable player who should easily be able to keep this up. He’s used to playing anywhere from 16-20 minutes a night, although it was at just 13 minutes with Utah as their seventh defenceman. On paper it would seem he slots in as a 2nd/3rd pairing that will get some PK time, going back into the career average range for time on ice. 

Metrics

Year
CF%
SCF%
HDCF%
xGF%
2020-21
47.02%
44.56%
44.78%
44.71%
2021-22
52.83%
51.10%
51.51%
52.45% 
2022-23
46.38%
45.58%
42.04%
43.87%
2023-24
47.73%
49.01%
50.30%
49.40%
2024-25
51.91%
52.49%
49.06%
51.70%
2025-26
53.73%
50.96%
54.95%
52.41%

Final thoughts

Calgary can’t operate with nothing but rookies, they need solid professionals to be good safety nets for the up and coming defenceman they have in their system. Hunter Brzustewicz should be coming back to the NHL soon, he’s earned it, and Zayne Parekh doesn’t have much competition left to quarterback the powerplay. One of those younger guys will be playing top 4 minutes, likely starting immediately, with Kevin Bahl or Yan Kuznetsov. We have to remember Kuznetsov himself is also still a rookie, and pairing him with Whitecloud was something we saw happen in the past week. Adding Olli Määttä gives the Flames a trusted player they can send out with either of those right shot rookies and still give their goaltending a fighting chance. 
He’ll be a hard working, defensive third pairing player for the Flames who will be an active contributor to their penalty kill. A nice get for Calgary to keep things stable as their younger players develop.
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