The Calgary Flames are adjusting their roster, moving out veteran players to provide spots for the youngsters, the future of the franchise. In 2026 alone, they traded Rasmus Andersson and Olli Määttä and moved on from one of their core leaders, Blake Coleman.
Going into the 2026-27 season, the only player in the current Flames lineup with a Stanley Cup title is 29-year-old Zach Whitecloud, who won a championship with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023. He came to Calgary in the deal that sent Andersson to the desert, where he helped the team advance to the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
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Now, in a recent post on Sportsnet, author Rory Boylen asks whether the Flames will move Whitecloud.
Based on his NHL statistics, Whitecloud will not be a team’s most offensive defenseman, with a career-high of 19 points in 2021-22. But based on averages, his totals include five goals and 18 points; in 31 games with Calgary last season, he had no goals and 10 assists.
As a right-shot defenseman who averaged more than 18 minutes a night on one occasion with the Golden Knights in seven and a half seasons, Whitecloud had a chance to play more with the Flames, averaging more than four minutes per night at 22:40.
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Right now, he’s on Calgary’s top pairing with Kevin Bahl, a 26-year-old, who is one of the few core skaters in the organization signed until the next decade. Moreover, Whitecloud is on the team’s top penalty killing unit, along with veterans Mikael Backlund, Joel Farabee, and recently acquired Jacob Middleton.
When Whitecloud steps onto the ice for the Flames’ season-opener, it will be his 400th NHL game. He’s scored only 23 goals and 88 points with 188 penalty minutes.
Meanwhile, he’s changing his on-ice role a bit, having recently set a career high of 140 blocked shots in 2025-26, surpassing his previous high of 115. Also, Whitecloud finished last year with 124 hits, the third consecutive season with at least 117 hits.
In a limited time with the Flames, Whitecloud assumed a leadership role, sporting the alternate captain letter for some games. Despite not being in the same class as Cale Makar or Zach Werenski, there’s a market for Whitecloud to land with a contender, who needs a top-four defenseman that can play a variety of roles and brings 78 games of Stanley Cup playoff experience.
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With two remaining on his current deal at a modest $2.75 million, someone may come knocking on Craig Conroy’s door to check on the defender’s availability before opening night, sometime in the middle of winter, or in the hours leading up to the trade deadline. Whenever that call comes, it will be up to Conroy to have the answer on where Whitecloud fits into the organization’s long-term plans and rebuild.
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