Calgary Flames have three defencemen leading NHL in this unique stat
The Calgary Flames coaching staff haven’t had much issue giving their top players big minutes this season.
The Flames, who currently find themselves on a three-game winning streak, have some holes both up front and on the back end of their roster which has made life difficult for head coach Ryan Huska.
The back end, in particular, has been a sore spot for the team this season. Joel Hanley has regressed, while Brayden Pachal and Jake Bean are never going to wow anybody. That, paired with an injury to Zayne Parekh, has resulted in Huska giving Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar, and Kevin Bahl some massve minutes through the first 24 games of the season.
It isn’t often that you can watch a Flames game without seeing one of Andersson, Weegar, or Bahl out on the ice, and the stats back that up.
ESPN
Through 24 games, Andersson leads all NHL defencemen with a whopping 816 shifts this season. Weegar is second with 789, while Bahl sits third with 708. No other player in the NHL has more than 700.
Jake McCabe, who has suited up for 22 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has the most shifts of any non-Flames player this season at 646. That’s 169 less than Andersson.
What makes things all the more interesting is how short the trio of defencemen have been keeping their shifts.
Despite leading the league in shifts taken, none of the three are top 10 in ice time. Andersson’s average of 24:24 per game ranks 12th in the NHL, while Weegar’s 23:55 is 20th. As for Bahl, he’s much further down the list, ranking 75th with an average of 21:10.
ESPN
What’s going to be really interesting is what Huska chooses to do from a minutes perspective in the coming months. After all, it’s expected that Andersson will be traded, which will leave a massive hole in the Flames’ back end.
Until such a move takes place, though, fans should expect the Swedish blue liner, along with Weegar and Bahl, to continue logging heavy minutes going forward.