'It means everything': Defenceman Weegar signs eight-year contract extension with Flames
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MacKenzie Weegar appreciates the compliments.
He really appreciates the contract. Fifty-million bucks, spread over a span of eight seasons, will put a smile on your face.
“The guys were all excited, shaking my hand and saying congratulations,” Weegar beamed Friday, just moments after signing a max-term extension with the Calgary Flames. “A few of them said, ‘Well deserved,’ but they don’t really know. They haven’t seen me play too, too much. So the expectations are high within the teammates, which is great.”
The Flames have seen enough — both over the course of his career and since he arrived at the Saddledome as part of Brad Treliving’s summer roster overhaul — to know that they want this guy to be a fixture on their defence for a long, long while.
Weegar, 28, would have been eligible next July for unrestricted free-agency — and in-their-prime puck-movers can command a whole lot of loot on the open market. Instead, he is now committed to stay put in Calgary through the end of the 2030-31 campaign at an annual salary-cap hit of US$6.25 million.
“It means everything,” said Weegar, an underdog story from the Ottawa area. “When I signed the deal, I just kept thinking of how long of a road it’s been for me, since Junior B to the Coast (ECHL) and now to here.
“I really have no words. It’s going to sink in a little later, I think. It’ll be emotional later to call my mom and my dad. This is just crazy, and I couldn’t be more thankful.”
Weegar and left-winger Jonathan Huberdeau co-headlined the return package in a blockbuster summer swap between the Flames and Florida Panthers. Matthew Tkachuk, unwilling to sign long-term in Cowtown, headed the other direction in that trade.
Huberdeau has also inked an eight-year extension with the Flames. Apparently, he’d been bugging his buddy to do the same.
“He kept giving me an elbow or two in the gut saying ‘When? When are you going to do it?’ ” Weegar relayed. “I just kept saying the same thing to him as I was saying to you guys: ‘Hopefully soon.’ Now, maybe I can get a house next to him or something like that?”
Maybe, one of these years, they could co-host a Stanley Cup party? That’s the ultimate goal.
“I believe in this team,” Weegar stressed. “They want to win. We have a winning team, a winning coach, a winning culture …
“They want to win now, and I want to win now.”
With Darryl Sutter at the helm, defence is the key ingredient to the Flames’ recipe for success. They were among the NHL’s most stingy squads last season, and the addition of Weegar only bolsters a deep and dependable blue-line brigade.
The new guy has so far accumulated 306 nights of NHL experience, collecting 27 goals and 121 points during a six-season stint with the Panthers.
In Florida, he was counted on to log major minutes, including a workhorse role on the penalty-kill. As training camp winds down, he has been partnered with Chris Tanev on what would be Calgary’s most trusted shutdown tandem. He’ll be an important piece of the shorthanded staff, too, and has also been auditioned on the second power-play unit. It’s a bonus that the right-hander is comfortable on either side of a pairing.
You could make a case that Weegar might be the Flames’ top defenceman. Next season, he’ll be the highest-paid of the local point-patrollers.
“I just want to stay the same type of player that I am,” said Weegar, who has received Norris Trophy votes in each of the past two campaigns, finishing eighth on the ballots in 2021 and then 14th last spring. “Now that I’ve signed this contract, I don’t think I really need to try to save the world or anything like that. I just kind of want to stick to the same type of player that I am and just try to get better at maybe conditioning outside the rink or keeping my body in shape. It’s a long contract, so those things go a long way.
“But it’s just staying the same type of player that I am and contributing how I did in the past.”
The Flames would be just fine with that.
Weegar arrives with a reputation as one of the NHL’s most proficient puck-movers. Although as word of his eight-year, US$50-million extension spread through the locker-room Friday, his teammates were more interested in entrees than outlet passes.
“They’re already on me for a team dinner,” Weegar grinned. “I’m sure I’ll dish out some free food for them.”
Twitter.com/WesGilbertson
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