Sunday, Jan. 18 saw the Calgary Flames move on from home-drafted, long-time defender Rasmus Andersson in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights (who else) for a decent return which includes a 2027 first-round pick, a conditional 2028 second-round pick (can become a first), the rights to unsigned prospect LHD Abram Wiebe, and Stanley Cup Champion Zach Whitecloud.

Let’s look at the champion defender, Whitecloud, to see what kind of impact he could possibly bring to Calgary.

The Flames are not bringing Whitecloud in for his goal scoring. Here’s his stat line from 2020-21 on – after he officially made it and stuck around.

Now that’s just what the boxscore tells us, and if you know me I like to go… beyond the boxscore (ba dum tiss). So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the big four on-ice metrics I like to track – thanks to NaturalStatTrick.com (5v5 SVA) – over the same span of Whitecloud’s career.

Over the span of his 368 NHL games Whitecloud has been a positive expected goals contributor. He’s clearly not doing so by driving a ton of offence, but he is typically limiting chances against at a rate that the natural offence that occurs in his minutes outweighs what he is seeing against. He’s only human – everyone will make mistakes – but typically Whitecloud is sound in his ability to suppress shots against.

He’s not going to replace that offence from the backend at all though. When in the attacking zone his support is limited to defensive pinches and passes back down low. He’ll be great at supporting board battles for wingers by giving them a safe outlet to pass to, but he’s not going to be jumping off the wall or dancing the blue line for scoring opportunities. Chris Tanev has/had more offence in his game than Whitecloud does. Expect 2-5 goals and 10-15 assists of offence per season.

This is a guy whose got more ability than your typical 3rd pair fill-in, but lacks the requisite offensive skill to play more than 2^nd pairing minutes 5v5.

The true talent with Whitecloud lies in his own end. Strong and physical in the corners – not at the level Robyn Regehr ever was – but plays within the same style and scope we used to see out of the old defender. His side of the ice stays clean of shots from in tight and limits things altogether.

Here’s his career shot rate chart via HockeyViz.com. As usual red means lots of shots, blue means not a lot of shots. All of it is weighted In comparison too every other player in the league creating new normal every year and ensures that the numbers remain unbiased towards any individual player. To have success last season does not impact how this is made the next year.

Whitecloud himself is having a down season, the first one in 6 seasons, but Vegas themselves haven’t been as strong as a team either. He’s shown over the years to be a guy you do not want to meet at the crease as it will end up with you losing the puck or a shot off the shinpads. It’s not just low in the zone either, his suppression skills extend to the middle portion of the attacking zone leaving only the perimeter for opposing players to handle the puck and get shots off.

Of course, new partners and new systems will affect these results, but the Flames play a very defence focused system which Whitecloud should be able to find some decent success.

Not all defence have the ability to gap up and make hits in the neutral zone. Some guys don’t have the coordination to make it work, some do not have the footspeed to stay up and get back should they miss/not knock the guy off the puck, and some guys can’t adjust to the speed of play in the NHL. Whitecloud is none of the above.

He can and will cut the defender off if he’s trying to beat hm wide and force a dump in. If he’s the first guy back, then he’s quick to retrieve the dump-in hoping his partner and centreman can impede the forecheck enough. He’s got that no nonsense to him as well – if he has the puck over the red line, he’s not making a fancy pass to the middle that could be picked off – pucks are going in deep with him.

He does need a better puck moving partner with him. That’s an area for growth from what I’ve seen. Someone that can find the passing lanes more effectively. As such I don’t think Bahl or Hanley are good partners stylistically for the Flames. By all means try them out, but getting your puck to wingers with speed will become a problem. Might be time to see if he could thrive with young Yan Kuznetsov who has more to his game than just a good stick and good positioning.

Now, after all of that, there is potential for the Flames to just turn around and flip Whitecloud to another team more realistically in the playoff hunt. That typically hasn’t been there gameplan when acquiring players back – and the coach will want more experienced NHL players to keep up with his playoff push – so Whitecloud staying would not shock me.

The lack of clear communication about what is going on and what their actual plan is makes it hard to predict what they will do. Typically, they wait and sell players as pending unrestricted free agents, but the winds oof change may be blowing harder now than ever before. Time will tell – if they flip Coleman or Kadri then anybody that wants Whitecloud could certainly get him for the right price. You never know with this group though, only their actions will determine what path they walk, even if it is intentionally the uncertain one.  

Zach Whitecloud is a welcome addition to any club in the NHL. He’s got limited offensive upside and should be viewed as a legitimate number 4/5 defenceman. The Flames, as currently constructed, have a real log jam of right-handed defenceman so I’m unsure who he’ll play with. Weegar, Kuznetsov, and Hanley appear to be the normal options but Brayden Pachal has had some success on his off-side this season. Heck, maybe they try Whitecloud on his off-side with Parekh or Brzustewicz. Either way, Whitecloud should make a positive impact defensively on the team and is surefire NHL defenceman you can rely on.

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