The Calgary Flames have claimed center John Beecher off of waivers from the Boston Bruins, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported today.
The Flames held the top waiver priority slot due to their place in the standings, meaning it’s possible more teams placed a claim on Beecher, a 2019 first-round pick, than just Calgary.
Per Derek Willis, the Flames’ radio play-by-play commentator, Calgary is likely to play tonight in Chicago with freshly called up forward Sam Morton as their fourth-line center. While the undrafted 26-year-old has been a strong AHL contributor since signing out of Minnesota State of the NCAA, he has just one prior game of NHL experience.
By claiming Beecher, the Flames have added to their roster a player who is not only younger than Morton, but also brings a considerably greater level of experience in a fourth-line center role. The 6’3″ pivot broke into the NHL on a full-time basis in 2023-24, and played in a total of 52 games that year and 12 playoff games. Upon his arrival from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, Beecher was also a plug-and-play option for the Bruins’ penalty kill, averaging 1:40 shorthanded time-on-ice per game as a rookie.
Beecher maintained his fourth-line, penalty-killing role in 2024-25, a season where he set career-highs in games played (72) and points (11). But Beecher has not been able to take a step forward and become the kind of reliable shutdown defensive center who can elevate his value proposition to a team despite fourth-line usage.
With that said, despite the fact that the Bruins elected to waive him, Beecher still has some positive, valuable qualities as a player. He plays extremely fast for someone his size, and has a career faceoff win rate of 53%. For a Flames team that doesn’t figure to enter into the playoff picture in 2025-26, this waiver claim gives the team an opportunity to see if it can develop Beecher into a more valuable all-around player than the Bruins were able to over the course of his 136 games with the club.
Worth noting is that Beecher is a pending restricted free agent, carrying a $900K AAV. If the Flames elect to qualify him, he will hold arbitration rights.
Another first round pick gone for nothing, nice work Don.
I mean, he was the 30th pick in a 31-pick round, so it’s not like Sweeney is just giving up gold for nothing here. Beecher was a healthy scratch most nights. And this frees up almost $1 million in cap space if Boston thinks this team is for real (which remains to be seen.)
@ fightcitymayor: (nods) Beecher had plenty of chances, but the bottom line is that the Bruins expected him to develop at some point, and he never did: not in college, not in the minors, not in the bigs.
Beyond that, Zanussi, c’mon. EVERY team in the league swishes on first rounders; even for a top-ten pick (which, until this year, Sweeney has never had), it’s a crap shoot.
Without pandemic, 2020-21 ECAC hockey happens and Matty Beniers goes to Harvard. Beech had not a spectacular but solid freshman year to build on. Just ended up buried his next two years because of all Michigan depth.
Butterfly effect
Ill add that, ’24 1st rounder, Ol Deaner has really taken off! Already triple his point totals from last year in 25 less games no less.
What’s Boston’s loss is Calgary’s gain in this case. Boston took the risk of putting Beecher on waivers. As the article states, Calgary only got him because of their position on the waiver wire but other teams probably put in claims for Beecher as it was unlikely Beecher wasn’t going to pass waivers.
If Calgary’s lucky, they might convert Beecher into a 3rd round pick…
The Flames 4th line just got bigger! Beecher and Klapka are giants with little Lombo buzzing around. If the Flames can’t score, maybe they can at least make it harder on other teams. Positive face offs and penalty killing. Hopefully he hits and fights too. Now that would be a fun pickup.
I wonder why the NHL doesn’t show other teams that lost the waiver. It would definitely make good news knowing that Calgary out-claimed both Edmonton and Toronto for the big guy’s services.
Flames trying to get better, instead should be tanking for a franchise player.