The Calgary Flames have recalled forwards Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr, two of the top three scorers for the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. They’ve made room for the call-ups by assigning forward Adam Klapka to the minor leagues, and placing Justin Kirkland on injured reserve. This latter move was first reported by Ryan Pike of Flames Nation. Kirkland left Calgary’s Friday loss to Columbus early with a lower-body injury. He sat out of the team’s Saturday game, and will now miss at least three more games while on IR.
Pelletier and Duehr have been core pieces of the Wranglers roster over the last month. They both have 19 points in 20 games, with Duehr’s scoring split as 11 goals and eight assists and Pelletier posting three goals and 16 assists. Duehr has been particularly red-hot, with eight points in his last 10 games. He also boasts more NHL experience between the two, stepping into 68 games across the last four seasons and scoring an evenly-split 18 points. Pelletier has played 37 NHL games of his own across the last three seasons, netting four goals and 10 points. Neither of the two have found their stride at the top flight just yet, but stand as two of Calgary’s top prospects outside of the NHL – especially Pelletier, who was selected 26th-overall in the 2019 NHL Draft.
One of the two will likely slot into Calgary’s lineup right away, set to fill Klapka’s role on the fourth-line wing. Right-shot Duehr seems the sensible choice. Klapka will return to the minors after playing through six NHL games with no scoring. He has five goals and eight points in seven AHL games this year, and potted 46 points in 65 games last season. He’ll get a chance to return to that level of production on this assignment, while hoping his Wranglers teammates don’t leapfrog him on the depth chart.