The Flames have locked up one of their young defensemen for the long term as they announced that they’ve signed Rasmus Andersson to a six-year extension. The deal will carry an AAV of $4.55MM.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the deal breaks down as follows:
2020-21: $5.05MM
2021-22: $4.05MM
2022-23: $4.55MM
2023-24: $4.55MM
2024-25: $4.55MM
2025-26: $4.55MM
The 23-year-old is in his second season as a regular on Calgary’s back end and has seen his role increase considerably from his rookie year. After spending a lot of time on the third pairing a season ago, he has spent a fair bit of time inside their top four while averaging over 19 minutes a night in playing time. He has also seen his production tick up slightly as he’s on pace to surpass the 19 points he put up a year ago as he already has three goals and nine assists on the season in 45 games.
This contract represents a significant raise on his current entry-level deal that carries an AAV of just over $755K with an extra $57.5K in performance bonuses. He was slated to become a restricted free agent without arbitration rights this summer but this deal will buy out his remaining RFA years plus two seasons of UFA eligibility.
Andersson is now the fourth Calgary defender signed for next season, joining Mark Giordano, Noah Hanifin, and Juuso Valimaki (injured). With now more than $64MM in commitments for next season already to just 13 players, it’s hard to imagine that they’ll be able to keep both of their notable pending UFA blueliners in the fold in T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic; the latter already indicated earlier back in October that he would not engage in any discussion regarding a contract extension during the season.
With that in mind, it’s safe to assume that Andersson should be a regular in their top four in 2020-21, something that certainly would have come into consideration during these talks. This price tag may seem a bit high for the moment but if he continues to show improvement over the next few seasons, it has the potential to be a value deal as the contract progresses.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
now thats a heck of a good deal for the flames to have him and Hannifn locked in for the next 5-6 years at less than 5 million each is a steal. theyre both probably going to be top pairing partners by the end of this deal