Mammoth acquire MacKenzie Weegar from Flames
The Utah Mammoth always love to make a big splash, and they’re doing it again on Wednesday.
In a report first made by Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, the Mammoth have acquired defenseman MacKenzie Weegar from the Calgary Flames in return for three second-round picks, defenseman Olli Maatta, and prospect center Jonathan Castagna. The current reported package was first reported by Frank Seravalli, with David Pagnotta the first to report Jonathan Castagna as the prospect in the trade.
The trade was initially reported earlier on Wednesday but took a while to finalize as Weegar needed to waive his no-trade clause.
Weegar wasn’t considered to be one of the Flames’ top players to move heading into this deadline, with Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri and Ryan Lomberg all ranking in the higher tier on Daily Faceoff’s Trade Board. However, he was considered to be one of the Flames’ more attractive assets to move, as he is a bona fide top-four defenseman locked up until 2031 at a reasonable $6.25 million cap hit.
In Weegar, the Mammoth get a defenseman who generally has a strong two-way game and is very versatile, with the ability to play on both the power play and penalty kill. He’s struggled offensively this season with just three goals and 18 assists for 21 points in 60 games.
Weegar also hasn’t been great in his own end with a 0.126 5v5 regularized adjusted plus-minus expected goals against per 60 minutes. But prior to this season he’d been one of the better defensemen in that regard since he was traded to the Flames in 2022, ranking 35th in that regard with a -0.12 5v5 RAPM xGA/60.
Maatta has struggled offensively with one assist in 22 games with the Mammoth. He missed nine games earlier in the season due to an upper-body injury, but has also missed a lot of time as a healthy scratch.
Castagna was a third round pick by the Arizona Coyotes in 2023. He has 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points in 29 games with Cornell University.
Jonathan Castagna has had an excellent year at Cornell. He was excellent when I watched him with St. Andrew's a few years back. Physical, strong skater, good frame. Legit prospect who's stock has really risen this year. @FlamesNation
The three second-round picks are all 2026 picks, belonging to the Mammoth, New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators.