NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Calgary Flames prospect Andrew Basha takes morning skate Friday in Medicine Hat with the Tigers ahead of WHL action against the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Flames reassigned the 20-year-old Basha to the Tigers for the rest of the WHL season.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
For the second time in his WHL career, Andrew Basha has a surprise return to Medicine Hat.
The 20-year-old forward was reassigned by the Calgary Flames from the AHL’s Wranglers to the WHL and the Tigers for the rest of the 2025-26 WHL season.
The Calgary product appeared in 27 AHL games with Calgary this season, recording a goal and five points. He made his return to the lineup Friday when the Tigers hosted the Moose Jaw Warriors at Co-op Place.
“It’s huge, Basha has been a big part of our program for a long time,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “It’s not like we’re bringing in a new guy, he’s had a tough couple years here, he got injured and he never got to give us what he could last year. He worked really hard to get ready for the run but just didn’t get healthy. So it’s going to be exciting for us to get him healthy.”
Basha played in 23 regular season games with the Tigers last season with nine goals and 29 points before an injury sidelined him through the second half of the year and three rounds of the playoffs.
He made a dramatic return for the WHL Finals, scoring in Game 1 against the Spokane Chiefs. He finished with two goals and five points across five games in the finals, helping the Tigers capture a sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup. He had an assist in four games at the Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Que.
He is looking froward to getting more ice time with the Tigers and looking to do damage in the WHL.
“More than anything I’m just excited to play, I’m really excited to just get back out there,” Basha said. “Just get normal touches back, feel the power play and probably the penalty kill. We’ve got a great team here again. So it’s always nice in this situation and you come back to a good group.”
In 201 career WHL games, all with the Tigers, he had 64 goals and 184 points. Basha last played for Calgary on Dec. 30. He’s looking forward to getting more ice time and puck touches, playing a higher role in the WHL.
“Just do my thing, I’m not a bottom six player, I’m a skilled forward, so, you know, I think their only message was to get me a lot of puck touches and I took a lot away from being in the AHL,” Basha said.
“My habits, how to take care of my body, positioning, really all areas of the game. It’s such a big jump. I was happy with how I played but I’m really exited to just play a lot.”
Desjardins says Basha will add pro experience, skill and the knowledge of what it takes to perform at a high level. Getting one of the league’s top overagers back, without spending an asset, is an added bonus for the Tigers ahead of the Jan. 8 trade deadline.
“We were looking for a high end forward and we just got one,” Desjardins said. “So saying that, we have incredible 20s, we’re here because of our team and those 20s are a huge, huge part of our team. So Andrew feels really bad about that, there’s nothing you can do about it though. He can’t do anything about it, that’s our business and that makes it hard. So we just have to find ways to deal with it.”
The move puts Desjardins in a difficult spot with four overagers, as Basha is joining forwards Ethan Neutens, Misha Volotovskii and defenceman Josh Van Mulligen. Volotovskii leads the trio with 11 goals and 24 points in 35 games entering Friday. Neutens, missing the start of the year due to injury, has seven goals and 12 points in 24 games. The Medicine Hat product Van Mulligen, scratched Friday, has three goals and nine points in 20 games.
The Tigers have until next week’s WHL trade deadline to get back to three 20-year-olds, with a tough choice to make.
“We’ll have to look and see, it’s just tough, those guys have all been so good to us, we won a cup with them and it’s going to be hard to see anybody go,” Desjardins said.
“I don’t want to give them up, like we weren’t actively looking to upgrade our 20s like that. We weren’t looking, we never asked, but Bash is one of us, too, so it’s great for him to come back.”
