Roster cuts have continued to flow in, and NHL rosters have nearly been finalized. Once the dust settles and final 23-man rosters have been submitted next week, we’ll finally be ready for real hockey. Heading into the season, the Calgary Flames are once again set up with a ton of cap space. One of the main reasons for this is their cheap blue line, which ranks near the bottom of the league in terms of spending.

A middling but cheap blue line

As it stands right now, the Flames will have a bottom-three defence in terms of overall spending against the cap. Here’s how the bottom five in the league stack up currently.

TeamBlue Line Cap Hit% of the CapSan Jose Sharks$23.75M24.9%Chicago Blackhawks$23.12M24.2%Calgary Flames$23.03M24.1%Detroit Red Wings$22.59M23.7%Anaheim Ducks$16.65M17.4%

No, you’re not reading that wrong. The Flames are somehow projected to have a cheaper blue line than the bottom-feeder San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks in 2025–26. You can either ring that up to efficient spending or a lack of talent on the backend. For the Flames, I think it’s a combination of both.

MacKenzie Weegar’s $6.25M is the highest AAV among all Flames defenders, and for good reason. He’s unquestionably the team’s best blueliner, and his cap hit is one of the top bargains in the NHL. In fact, Weegar is the second-lowest-paid number-one defenceman in the entire NHL. Only the Blackhawks don’t have a higher-paid defender on their roster than Weegar. Every other team has one or multiple defenders making more than Weegar’s $6.25M cap hit.

Across the entire league, Weegar’s $6.25M cap hit ranks tied for the 49th highest AAV among defenders. I think it’s fair to say Weegar is far better than the 49th-best defencemen in the NHL. In fact, there’s a real argument that he’s a top 20 defender in the NHL, if not higher. That’s efficient spending at its best.

A big drop in talent level

After Weegar, the talent level drops off quite a bit, which is another main reason the Flames sit near the bottom of the league in blue line spending. Kevin Bahl’s new $5.35M AAV is the only other total above the $5M mark on the roster. Along with Rasmus Andersson’s $4.55 AAV, the Flames have just three defenders making over $2M in 2025–26.

The remaining group of Joel Hanley, Jake Bean, Daniil Miromanov, and Brayden Pachal are all on sub $2M contracts. Not surprising considering all four are considered bottom-pairing defenders, yet they make up half of the team’s blue line. When you lose core defenders like Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov and replace them with waiver pickups and cheap free agent signings, your blue line’s talent and spending are going to go way down.

Once Andersson’s $4.55M cap hit is dealt, it will drop the Flames down to the second-cheapest blue line in the league, ahead of only the Anaheim Ducks, assuming they don’t take any big contracts back.

The opposite end of the spectrum

For comparison’s sake, here are the five highest-paid blue lines in the NHL heading into the 2025–26 season.

TeamBlue Line Cap Hit% of the CapNew Jersey Devils$36.76M38.5%Washington Capitals$35.43M37.1%Buffalo Sabres$35.16M36.8%Columbus Blue Jackets$34.32M35.9%Edmonton Oilers$33.99M35.6%

Seeing the above numbers really puts into perspective how little the Flames spend on defence. The league leaders in the New Jersey Devils are spending a whopping $13M more on their defence than the Flames will in 2025–26, thanks to Luke Hughes’ recent extension.

While the Flames are spending just 24% of their cap space on defence, all of the above teams are spending over 35% on their defence. The Devils, in particular, are spending 14% more on defence than the Flames.

All five teams have two defenders making more money than Weegar’s $6.25 cap hit in the 2025–26 season. What’s interesting is non-playoff teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets showing up here. Considering they have two of the highest-paid blue lines in the league, it just goes to show spending more money doesn’t always translate to results if you’re not spending it well.

An unproven blue line

I don’t think anyone will question why the Flames rank 30th when it comes to blue line spending. Over half of their defence core are rookies or journeymen defencemen. The spending matches the roster, with the bottom half of the team’s blue line a major weakness heading into the season.

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