The Calgary Flames revealed mid-game that Kevin Bahl would not return in Dallas due to a lower-body injury. Bahl went in to deliver a routine check on Thomas Harley, catching an edge badly on his right leg. He completed the hit but immediately favored his knee.
The 25-year-old is hardly a household name, but he’s been a steady presence in Calgary all year. Bahl leads all Flames skaters in ice time at 22:13 a night, serving as a top pairing minute-eater, playing in 75 games and missing just one to this point. His efforts are worthy of a long term extension in Calgary which was inked last June.
Hardly expected to drive offense, Bahl has set a career high with four goals as part of his 18 points across the campaign. His 46.8% corsi for at five-on-five is respectable considering the 6’6” lefty’s workload on a bottom feeding team.
Calgary will hope he’s back for a tall task on Thursday in Colorado, but firmly in the basement, the priority will be Bahl reaching full health as they look ahead to 2026-27.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Detroit Red Wings forward Michael Rasmussen left against Columbus with a lower-body injury and won’t return, per the team. It’s not immediately clear what happened, but his night ended after 10 shifts at 7:57. Turning 27 in 10 days, it’s abundantly clear that the 6’6” center won’t live up to his 9th overall selection billing. However, Rasmussen has also struggled in a grinder role, even point totals (14) aside. With his Red Wings facing the likely disappointment of another year missing the playoffs, they could benefit from exploring a change of scenery for Rasmussen, but he’s signed for two more years at $3.2MM per season. Regardless, the British Columbia native will hope to be back for the team’s four remaining regular season games.
- The AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, affiliates of the Utah Mammoth, announced that their lease with the City of Tucson has been extended through 2027-28. Next season will mark a decade for the franchise in Arizona, coming over from Springfield, Massachusetts in 2016. Of course, the Roadrunners’ neighboring NHL club unfortunately departed their state two years ago. However, they thankfully remain as the primary professional hockey organization in Arizona, still adoring the classic former Coyotes color scheme as they develop the next members of the Mammoth, an NHL team also not far away geographically. The Roadrunners are currently 19th in the AHL this season, led by Ben McCartney, and supplemented by several standout prospects from Utah such as Dmitri Simashev.
Perhaps the early season play of the Wings encouraged a positive outlook for the playoffs this season. Alas, the March (and now April) darkness has once again descended upon the team, affixing them in what seems to be that permanent “just out of contention” position as the regular season ends.
Hope they do well in the remaining handful of games, but now the real work begins at the head office and in the coaching offices. 2026-27 is, in reality, the next opportunity to make advancements. Squandering time and energy bitching about the 2025-26 losses to mediocre teams is a waste. Get moving on the moves that will put more wins in our pockets next season.
Time to buy out Raz, he even lost his net-front job on the PP, which is the main way he once scored. It is doubtful he can be traded even when salary is half retained.
Two injuries plus mediocre performance may put a question mark in Rasmussen’s potential as a trade until he returns to full health status.
One thing that the Yzerplan, or for that matter, any GM’s plans can’t predict is their player performance choices going flat when it comes to the ice.
When we run out of excuses for player poor performances, we always blame coaches then the GM and front office. At the end of the day, it is always the players who either perform as expected or don’t.
One thing that should change but likely won’t, is pay for performance. Somehow there has to be added incentive for multi million dollar contract players to support their annual pay based on their actual contributions to the team. Hockey in general would get a kick in the pants under such pay for performance, but as I said, don’t look for it to happen.