The Calgary Flames have begun their re-tooling.
They traded defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday evening.
In return, they actually get quite the package back. It’s two players and three second-round picks, according to insider Elliotte Friedman.
The players:
- Olli Maatta
- Jonathan Castagna
Castagna is the lesser known of the two. He was the No. 70 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. He plays center at Cornell University.
This season with the Big Red, Castagna has 32 points in 29 games.
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This deal will be as much about Castagna’s development and the three second-round picks, which are all in 2026. The Flames are looking toward the future and want to bulk up their youth that way.
Maatta is a 31-year old defenseman who originally came to the NHL as a first-round pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011.
He has won two Stanley Cups and is a left-shot D-man.
This season, Maatta has played just 22 games and has a single assist.
He played six years in Pittsburgh, then one with the Blackhawks, two with the Kings, three with the Red Wings and then the tail end of last season with the Mammoth as well as the first portion of this season.
Maatta has always been a defensive-minded defenseman, and he’ll at least add some stability to a Calgary team that could use it.
He was more of a like-for-like swap, while the rest of the deal was about Calgary’s future.
