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MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t accessible to be chosen in Thursday’s all-star fantasy draft.
That’s a disgrace. Particularly as a result of the Calgary Flames, after swapping Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks, are not represented on the mid-season spectacle.
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Weegar definitely would have been a worthy invitee.
He’s, in spite of everything, among the many NHL’s main lamp-lighters from the blue-line this season, along with his dozen objectives at the moment tied for the second-highest complete by a defenceman.
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Rasmus Dahlin, who has potted 13 from the purpose, is skating on the all-star shindig.
Amongst these tied with Weegar are Norris Trophy favourites Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar. They, too, are being spotlighted this week in Toronto.
“Actually, it doesn’t absolutely register,” Weegar informed Postmedia earlier than jetting to Mexico for the all-star break. “My buddies will say one thing to me about Makar and Hughes and all these guys, and I simply chuckle to myself. I discover it humorous that I’m in the identical dialog as these guys. Nevertheless it’s superior. There’s part of me that wishes to beat them, as properly.
“You understand, I’m a man that doesn’t get talked about an excessive amount of and people guys are in all places. So if I might beat them, it’s an amazing story for myself.”
Weegar’s scoring outburst has been one of many constructive storylines across the Saddledome.
Whereas superstars like Hughes and the Calgary-raised Makar are purported to be fill the online, Weegar had by no means earlier than sniped greater than eight in a season. The 30-year-old has already zoomed previous his earlier career-high. If he can preserve his present tempo, he’ll grow to be solely the third Flames rearguard within the 2000s to hit 20 objectives.
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“I simply wish to contribute to the group,” stated Weegar, who has added 17 assists in his 49 video games to date. “However I’m right here for eight years, in all probability till I retire, and I wish to get wins. I don’t a lot care about my objectives and factors and whatnot. I need the win column to start out going up.”
Few expect the Flames to rack up wins over the ultimate stretch, particularly with Lindholm — their first-line centre and lone all-star choice — traded to Vancouver earlier this week and defence companions Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev each on the block in the event that they’re not prolonged earlier than deadline day.
However Weegar, who’s signed via the 2030-31 marketing campaign with an annual cap-hit of US$6.25 million, is likely one of the veterans who might be counted on to set the tone and set the tradition via the re-tool. He’s a fiery competitor, as evidenced by each his shot-blocking stats — he’s among the many Prime-10 within the league, with 118 — and the splinters of the stick that he shattered throughout the publish after a puck-handling gaffe that resulted in a latest shorthanded breakaway bury by the St. Louis Blues.
It’s too dangerous that Weegar didn’t rating an invite to the 2024 NHL All-Star Sport, as a result of this Ottawa-raised rearguard is a good story.
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He was initially drafted by the Florida Panthers as a seventh-round long-shot.
He skated within the ECHL, a degree that the highest prospects at all times skip.
And this season, he’s among the many most efficient at his place, though each Hughes and Makar have twice as many complete factors.
With Friday’s information that the NHL is internet hosting a four-team worldwide match subsequent February after which sending its expertise to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, you’ll even hear Weegar’s identify talked about as a candidate to signify Canada on the world stage.
Throughout an interview earlier this winter, Calgary Wranglers defenceman Brady Lyle talked about No. 52 as a task mannequin for these guys nonetheless grinding to succeed in the very best degree.
“Weegs, I wish to assume that I might play like him someday,” stated the 24-year-old Lyle, who signed a two-way contract with the Flames this previous summer time. “Clearly, he’s having a fairly large yr and simply the way in which he shoots the puck and at all times has his toes shifting all the way in which across the ice, that’s one thing I look as much as.
“He performed in Springfield (within the AHL), and I did too,” Lyle added. “The radio man there, he at all times spoke actually extremely of Weegs, which was simply type of random as a result of clearly I didn’t know I used to be going to finish up right here. And seeing him now, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, he at all times spoke actually extremely of Weegs, and now I get to see why, see it in particular person.’ ”
Because it seems, even those that have witnessed Weegar’s ascent didn’t essentially see this goal-scoring splurge coming.
A bunch of his buddies are in fantasy hockey leagues, however he didn’t hear a lot about their drafts — and he was eligible for these ones.
“I guess, at the start of the yr, they didn’t choose me. Not one in every of them, I guess you, picked me,” Weegar stated with a large smile. “We’ll discover out who the nice GMs are. We’ll see who went to get me.”
wgilbertson@postmedia.com
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