Flames’ MacKenzie Weegar takes a shot at former teammates in Florida

The players on the new Calgary Flames roster are ready for the 2022-23 season to get underway. Especially thanks to the many moves GM Brad Treliving pulled this offseason, which started off brutally with free agent Johnny Gaudreau, who shocked the hockey world when he inked a seven-year deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets (joining Erik Gudbranson, who inked a deal with Columbus earlier the same day).

Then, there was the infamous Matthew Tkachuk trade. He was traded to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a 2025 first-round pick. Treliving then got Huberdeau to sign an eight-year contract extension, while Weegar currently remains a pending unrestricted free agent though progress has been made in contract negotiations. 

On top of all that, Treliving managed to sign free agent Nazem Kadri to a seven-year deal. That’s a busy offseason!
Goalie Jacob Markstrom was quick to claim this summer that Calgary is better now with Kadri, Huberdeau and Weegar than it was with Gaudreau and Tkachuk.

On Wednesday, it was Weegar himself who spoke to TSN about the transition of moving to Calgary and admits that while the Panthers are a good team, he believes the Flames have a better squad overall.

“We’re a better team than Florida is…”

Kadri, Huberdeau, and Weegar combined for 246 points last year; Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Sean Monahan managed 242. So statistically speaking, this sounds about right. But not by a whole lot.

But the new Flames are confident. So much so that Huberdeau believes they can win the Stanley Cup in 2023:

“I think we can believe and go get a Stanley Cup right away.”