West Notes: Frolik, Joly, Hanzal

The Flames announced that they have activated winger Michael Frolik off injured reserve and he will be back in the lineup today against St. Louis. The veteran has missed the last 15 games due to a high ankle sprain.  He has been more productive in the goal scoring department this season with seven tallies in 20 games, a far better pace than last year where he had just ten in 70 contests.  However, his ice time has been slashed considerably as he’s logging just over 12 minutes a night as his role in the lineup has been reduced.  The team also announced that winger Ryan Lomberg has been assigned back to Stockton of the AHL.

Elsewhere out West:

• Still with Calgary, it has been a weird couple of weeks for Flames prospect D’Artagnan Joly. He left Baie-Comeau on December 12th to await a trade and one week later, that move came as he was sent to Victoriaville.  However, he’s on the move once again as the Rimouski Oceanic announced that they’ve now acquired him from the Tigres in exchange for a 2020 first round pick and a prospect.  The winger was Calgary’s sixth round pick (177th overall) in 2017 and has to sign by the beginning of June or the Flames will lose his rights.  Joly is off to an okay start this season with 26 points in 31 games (but below his point-per-game average of 1.24 last year) but will need to pick it up down the stretch if he wants to earn a contract.
• Stars center Martin Hanzal will miss tonight’s game due to a sore back, notes Mark Stepneski of Stars Inside Edge (Twitter link). Even though he’s expected to suit up tomorrow, this has to be cause for concern considering he just came back to the lineup earlier this month after undergoing spinal fusion surgery on his back in March.  The veteran is off to a slow start offensively with just two points in six games but has been particularly sharp at the faceoff dot, winning over 61% of his draws.  Jason Spezza (illness) will take Hanzal’s spot in the Dallas lineup.