- Weegar called it “a bit unfortunate” to watch stars push their way out of Canadian markets
- The Ottawa native spent four seasons in Calgary before the Flames sent him to Utah in March
- Read below for his full comments and the four Team USA stars who have asked out in the past year
MacKenzie Weegar spent four seasons in a Canadian market, and he is not thrilled with how many stars are trying to leave one.
The Utah Mammoth defenseman joined TSN 1050’s OverDrive on Wednesday afternoon and was asked about the run of NHL players forcing their way out of Canada. Weegar grew up in Ottawa and played four years in Calgary, so he took the question personally.
“As a Canadian-born player and to play in Calgary, for me personally, I had a great experience in Canada. Calgary was an absolute blast to play in that city. It’s a bit unfortunate to see players wanting out of Canada, just because I know how passionate the fans are there, the citizens in each city, and how much they love their hockey and their star players.”
He kept going from there. “You don’t like to see it, but at the same time, there’s a lot of teams out here, Utah, that has to offer a little bit more than you’d say in Canada.”
Watch the full answer:
The names behind the trend are almost all American. We laid it out last week: four gold medalists from the 2026 U.S. Olympic team have asked out inside a year, and three of them were playing in Canada.
Brady Tkachuk got his move out of Ottawa to Florida in July. Quinn Hughes was dealt from Vancouver to Minnesota last season after telling the Canucks he would not re-sign. Connor Hellebuyck made his Winnipeg request official through his agent in August. Dylan Larkin is the only one of the four in an American market, and he is still sitting in Detroit without a resolution.
Weegar knows the other version of this story. He arrived in Calgary in July 2022 as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade, the one that also brought Jonathan Huberdeau north weeks after Johnny Gaudreau signed in Columbus. Weegar then put his name on an eight-year, $50 million extension that October and stayed.
Calgary traded him anyway. The rebuilding Flames sent Weegar to Utah in March for defenseman Olli Maatta, forward prospect Jonathan Castagna and three second-round picks in the 2026 draft.
Before that deal he had 21 points in 60 games and was logging more than 23 minutes a night for a team going nowhere. He is 32 now, signed through 2030-31, and doing his talking about Canadian hockey markets from Salt Lake City.
