Grading the MacKenzie Weegar trade: Flames commit to rebuild, Utah makes a splash
After a few relatively quiet days, the NHL’s trade floodgates finally opened wide on Wednesday with less than 48 hours to go until the March 6 deadline.
Much of the recent chatter has centred on the Calgary Flames, who are widely expected to trade Blake Coleman and/or Nazem Kadri by the end of the week. But on Wednesday, the Flames and Utah Mammoth pulled off a stone-cold stunner of a deal, with veteran defenseman MacKenzie Weegar now heading to the Beehive State after waiving his no-trade clause.
This figures to be the start of a busy two-day stretch for the Flames — and maybe the Mammoth, too. Let’s get after it with our newest edition of Daily Faceoff‘s Trade Grades!
UTAH MAMMOTH
Receive:
D MacKenzie Weegar, 32 – $6.25 million cap hit through 2031
It hasn’t quite been two years since Ryan Smith took control of the Arizona Coyotes franchise and re-established it one state to the north, but in that time, the Utah Mammoth (né Hockey Club) have gone out of their way to chase some of the biggest names possible. It all started at the 2024 NHL Draft, when they paid a hefty price to acquire two-time Stanley Cup champion Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it continued the following summer with their big swing for J.J. Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres. Now, the Mammoth have expended considerable draft capital to add another veteran defenseman.
Of Utah’s current NHL defensive contingent, only Sean Durzi pre-dates the move from Arizona. The rest have all joined up over the last 18 months or so, with Weegar the latest to arrive after agreeing to waive his full NTC on Wednesday. Key to the return from the Florida Panthers in the Matthew Tkachuk trade in 2022, Weegar spent parts of four seasons with the Flames but never once made the playoffs before being flipped to the Mammoth for a package of five assets.
After watching the Panthers reach three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals immediately after his departure, Weegar might now get a chance to make some noise of his own in the playoffs. Of course, the Mammoth aren’t quite a playoff lock just yet, with only four points separating them from the ninth-place San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference standings, but they’re a solid young team with aspirations to contend in the near future. Weegar only needed a couple of hours to decide whether to agree to the trade, and in the end, he chose to go.
But what version of Weegar is Utah getting? Their management group is banking on the 32-year-old righty returning to his pre-2025 form, when he was widely considered an analytical darling and one of the most underrated defenders in the NHL. That has not been the case in 2025-26, with Weegar recording just three goals and 21 points in 60 games while posting a dreadful minus-35 rating. While he’s certainly fallen victim to more than his fair share of bad bounces, Weegar also struggled to drive play and limit chances to the same extent fans in Calgary became accustomed to in the first three seasons of his tenure.
Mammoth fans are right to say that Weegar will have more help in his new digs. It also remains to be seen whether the move will give him a chance to reset. Ultimately, it just hasn’t been going well for anybody in Calgary, and the Mammoth didn’t have to give up their top prospects to make a big addition to their own defensive group. If Weegar can rebound from this nightmarish year, everything should be fine. But if this season is only the start of a severe age-related decline, the Mammoth might be in big trouble. It’s a gamble!
Grade: B
CALGARY FLAMES
Receive:
D Olli Maatta, 31 – $3.5 million cap hit through 2028
C Jonathan Castagna, 20 – Unsigned draft pick
2026 second-round pick
2026 second-round pick (via New York Rangers)
2026 second-round pick (via Ottawa Senators)
It’s no secret that the Flames have been consistent and aggressive sellers basically ever since Craig Conroy took over as their general manager in 2023. Conroy inherited a team with an aging and deeply flawed roster, along with a severely depleted prospect pool, and almost immediately began the process of systematically auctioning off as many high-value pieces as possible.
The Flames entered the 2023 offseason with six high-profile pending UFAs: Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev, and Mikael Backlund. Conroy traded five of them for a combination of draft picks and prospects, only keeping Backlund in the fold to replace Mark Giordano as team captain. He subsequently sold high on Andrew Mangiapane, Jacob Markstrom, and Rasmus Andersson when it became clear they weren’t part of the team’s long-term plans.
That last part is why Wednesday’s trade feels so much different: Weegar absolutely could’ve remained a member of the Flames for many seasons to come, especially with five more years on his contract at a relatively inoffensive cap hit. The Flames weren’t up against any big deadline to move him, and especially not after they traded Andersson earlier this season. They could’ve easily kept Weegar in the fold as a steadying presence for their ongoing rebuild/retool/what have you. They didn’t.
The Flames have historically been reluctant to pull the trigger on these types of moves until the last possible moment. This has seldom been the team to get ahead of this sort of thing. Weegar has been having a rotten year, but until Wednesday, it still felt like the Flames would forego any potential trade return to keep him around as part of the transition into Scotia Place in 2027. Instead, Conroy chose to be proactive, and the Flames are all the richer for it.
At first glance, it might seem odd that the Flames couldn’t get a first-round pick or top prospect from Utah in this deal, but then again, not all second-rounders are created equal. That Rangers pick, in particular, is just about as close as you’ll get to the first round without actually making it there. The Flames now have eight picks in the first three rounds of the 2026 NHL Draft; they made eight picks in the entirety of Conroy’s first draft as Flames GM. If Castagna turns into an NHLer, or if Conroy can flip Maatta for additional draft capital down the line, it’ll be the cherry on top of a solid little haul.
There’s no need for the Flames to dance around it anymore. They’re rebuilding, and the grade they get for this deal is just as much a testament to the importance of them finally embracing that direction as it is an expression of the tangible value of the return.
Grade: A-
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