Utah Mammoth defenseman MacKenzie Weegar has described the recent trend of American NHL stars requesting trades from Canadian teams to join franchises in the United States as "unfortunate." Several prominent U.S. players, including Brady Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes, have sought moves away from their Canadian clubs.
Tkachuk was traded from the Ottawa Senators to the Florida Panthers, while Hughes requested a trade from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild. Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck also confirmed he had requested a trade from his Canadian team. All three players were key members of the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team that recently defeated Canada for a gold medal. The U.S. Olympic teams celebrated historic gold medal victories, with the men's team securing their win in an overtime thriller and the women's team also achieving a championship run.
Weegar, who is from Ottawa and has played for teams in both Canada and the U.S., acknowledged the reasons behind these requests, citing factors such as intense media scrutiny in Canadian markets, potentially more favorable economic conditions in the U.S., and the current concentration of competitive NHL teams located south of the border. He noted that American teams might offer more to players.
"But it’s a bit unfortunate to see players wanting out of Canada just because I know how passionate the fans are and all the citizens in each city and how much they love their hockey and their star players," Weegar told TSN's OverDrive. "You don’t like to see it, but at the same time, there’s a lot of teams out here [like] Utah that has a little bit more to offer than, say, in Canada."
Despite the trend, Weegar emphasized that the ultimate goal for any player is to compete in the NHL. "At the end of the day, we’re all hockey players; it doesn’t matter where you play, you just want to play in the NHL. It’s the best league in the world."