Flames Recall Rory Kerins
The Flames announced Tuesday that they’ve recalled forward Rory Kerins from AHL Calgary. In doing so, they’ve used up the last of the five standard recalls available after the trade deadline, so they won’t be able to make any non-emergency moves before Thursday’s season finale against the Kings. Kerins will be an option to dress tonight against the Avalanche, though.
Kerins has seven NHL games to his name, all coming over the last two seasons. He got a brief recall back in November, during which he suited up in back-to-back games, so he won’t be making his season debut if he plays. The 2020 sixth-rounder got off to a hot start last year, rattling off four assists and a +3 rating through his first five NHL games before being returned to the minors. He didn’t get on the scoresheet in either appearance earlier this season.
The 24-year-old has worked his way up the organization’s depth chart on the heels of some spectacular minor-league offensive performances. As a first-year pro in 2022-23, he was one point shy of a point per game for ECHL Rapid City. He’s now held a full-time AHL role for the past three years and has a lifetime 72-77–149 scoring line in 182 games. That includes a 33-goal, 61-point showing in 63 games last year and another 22 goals and 54 points in 55 games this season.
The 5’11’, 190-lb center has some defensive flaws, though, that have kept him from progressing further into more NHL roles. That, plus the fact he projects as more of a winger at the NHL level, where the Flames are deeper, creates a numbers game that doesn’t fall in his favor when put up against younger, higher draft pedigree names like Matvei Gridin, Samuel Honzek, and Brennan Othmann.
Kerins did pass through waivers unclaimed at the beginning of this season, so that also likely won’t be much of a concern for Calgary moving forward. A pending restricted free agent, they face a choice of whether to qualify him in June, extend him before then, or let him walk to open up a contract slot. His qualifying offer is only a two-way deal with a cap hit of $813,750, so they certainly won’t balk financially at sending that his way.
Wyttenbach Wins NCAA Rookie Of The Year Award
Flames prospect Ethan Wyttenbach won the Tim Taylor Award for Rookie of the Year. The 19-year-old was a fifth-round pick (144th overall) last June and had quite the freshman year at Quinnipiac. He played in 40 games, tallying 25 goals and 34 assists. That was good enough to not only lead his team in scoring but all of Division I. Unsurprisingly, he was also a Top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award.
Flames Sign Abram Wiebe To Entry-Level Deal
1:15 p.m.: The Flames have officially announced Wiebe’s signing. Per PuckPedia, it’s actually a cap hit of $950K that carries an NHL salary of $855K, a $95K signing bonus, and a minors salary of $82.5K each season. He’ll be owed a $940.5K qualifying offer upon expiry in 2027 as a 10.2(c) player.
10:48 a.m.: The Flames are expected to sign defense prospect Abram Wiebe to his entry-level contract, per reports from Frank Seravalli of Victory+ and Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960. It will be a two-year deal that will take effect immediately, carrying a prorated cap hit of $980K and making him a restricted free agent following the 2026-27 season.
Wiebe’s junior season at the University of North Dakota came to an end Thursday afternoon as the Fighting Hawks were upset in the NCAA national semifinals by Wisconsin. Calgary had acquired the 22-year-old’s signing rights from the Golden Knights in January as part of the Rasmus Andersson deal. He was a seventh-round pick in Vegas in 2022, then out of the Chilliwack Chiefs of the junior-level British Columbia Hockey League.
The 6’3″, 209-lb lefty has had a good run at North Dakota over the past few years. After being named the BCHL’s top defenseman and a first-team All-Star in 2022-23, he compiled a 10-53–63 scoring line with a +25 rating in 118 career outings for the Fighting Hawks.
He capped things off with a 29-point, +13 showing in 40 games this season as an alternate captain, serving as their #2 defenseman behind undrafted free agent Jake Livanavage and playing over 20 minutes a night. He made it onto the NCHC’s second All-Star team and helped propel the Fighting Hawks to their second regular-season conference championship in his three years with the program.
Needless to say, Wiebe turns pro carrying more prestige than a standard seventh-rounder. He’s the #9 prospect in a Calgary pool that ranks top-three in the league, according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, and is of particular long-term importance to a club without much current or future depth on the left side of their blue line.
Their current group of lefties consists of Kevin Bahl, Olli Määttä, Joel Hanley and Yan Kuznetsov – all of whom are signed through at least next season. Bahl and Hanley are currently injured, though, so there’s an immediate opportunity for Wiebe to step into a third-pairing role behind Kuznetsov and Määttä for the final four games of the season.
Kevin Bahl Leaves Due To Injury
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.
Flames Reassign Brennan Othmann
The Flames reassigned winger prospect Brennan Othmann to AHL Calgary on Sunday, per a team announcement.
Calgary acquired Othmann, the #16 overall pick in the 2021 draft, from the Rangers on deadline day in exchange for 2024 second-rounder Jacob Battaglia. The Blueshirts had been shopping Othmann, who was never able to push above a call-up/fourth-line slot on the depth chart, dating back to the beginning of the season, but ultimately didn’t find the fit to move him as part of a larger deal. Instead, the Flames took him on as a more traditional change-of-scenery candidate while the Rangers still managed to recoup an even younger winger still with middle-six upside.
Othmann’s early returns in the Flames organization haven’t been overwhelmingly positive. Through 10 AHL games after the trade, he’s still scoreless and has only managed five assists with a -7 rating. Calgary still decided to give him a shot late last month, playing him in back-to-back games against the Canucks and Avalanche to close their March schedule. He had a goal and an assist, averaging 11:04 per game, but he was used puzzlingly in a checking role (81.0 dZS% at 5-on-5), and his possession numbers suffered for it. The fact that Othmann managed seven shot attempts despite spending so much time in his own end is something to applaud, though.
The 23-year-old was scratched in back-to-back games last week, so it’s of little surprise that the Flames have opted to get him back playing in the AHL instead of having him sit around as a healthy extra. Calgary has shown they’re keen on rotating some of their younger bubble players into the lineup to close out another season without playoff action, recently recalling Aydar Suniev and getting 2024 first-rounder Matvei Gridin into a top-six role.
Othmann will require waivers to head to the minors beginning next season. Calgary will need to decide whether his AHL production – 41 goals and 90 points in 130 career games – is worth earmarking an NHL roster spot for him, regardless of his training camp performance, to avoid the risk of losing him for nothing in the fall.
Flames Recall Aydar Suniev
The Flames recalled wing prospect Aydar Suniev from AHL Calgary on Friday, per a team announcement. It appears he’ll be getting a look in the lineup this weekend against the Ducks as Calgary continues to flex its youngsters into limited trial roles down the stretch. In doing so, they’ve now used up four of the five regular recalls they’re allotted after the trade deadline.
If he gets into a game, it’ll be Suniev’s first since making his NHL debut in Game 82 of last season. The 21-year-old was a third-round pick in 2023 out of the Penticton Vees, then of British Columbia’s junior ‘A’ league, before spending the next two seasons at UMass. He starred as a sophomore for the Minutemen, posting 20 goals and 38 points in 35 games, before opting to turn pro.
Suniev hasn’t had the adjustment the Flames were hoping for. He hasn’t done much to push for a recall throughout the season. His work-in-progress skating has severely hampered his two-way utility, so while he’s tied for fourth on the AHL squad with 15 goals in 55 games, he’s added just eight assists and has a team-worst -26 rating.
As Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff opined last offseason, Suniev is the Flames’ #10 prospect and can easily rise up that list if the club’s development coaches are able to continue working on his skating. He’ll get a brief check-in at the NHL level here with seven games left in the Flames’ season to see how he looks against tougher competition. If there isn’t some meaningful progress there, though, the 6’2″, 198-lb winger will likely need to start leveraging his frame more to try and carve out a role as a bottom-six grinder.
Flames’ Ethan Wyttenbach To Stay In NCAA For Sophomore Season
Calgary Flames fans will have to wait a little while longer to see a breakout prospect take pro ice. Winger Ethan Wyttenbach has announced he will return to Quinnipiac University for his sophomore season after leading the country in scoring as a freshman. It was a breakout performance for the 2025 fifth-round pick that culminated in a top-10 finish in Hobey Baker Award voting, awarded annually to the NCAA’s MVP.
Wyttenbach became only the fifth freshman to lead college hockey in scoring since 2000. He joins an exclusive list of NHL stars, including Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, Adam Fantilli, and Will Smith. In each instance, the breakout performance was followed by an immediate pro contract. Wyttenbach will break that mold by returning for a second season.
The Quinnnipiac Bobcats led college hockey in scoring this season but fell well shy of an ECAC conference championship. They haven’t acheived that feat since 2016, despite winning the NCAA National championship in 2023. That is another course they were knocked off of this season, losing to the University of North Dakota in the first round this season.
Wyttenbach’s return will help the Cougars attempt to right both wrongs. He was a main play-driver all year long, playing well off of fellow freshmen Antonin Verreault and Markus Vidicek. Their support helped Wyttenbach reach a staggering 58 points in 40 games on the year. It also, more importantly, allowed Boston Bruins prospect Christopher Pelosi to remain in a second-line role, giving Quinnipiac a top-six that was hard to beat. Verreault and Vidicek are both expected to return to Quinnipiac next season, as is top defender and Bruins prospect Elliott Groenewold.
Those returnees will keep Quinnipiac’s lineup formidable into the 2026-27 season. Wyttenbach will undoubtedly continue on as the team’s top forward. He faces a tough challenge repeating his historic freshman season but managing the feat could go far in cementing his spot as one of Calgary’s top prospects. Wyttenbach is only two seasons removed from playing youth, AAA hockey in New England. Before moving to college, he scored 51 points in 44 games with the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede.
Flames Sign Axel Hurtig To Entry-Level Contract
The Calgary Flames have signed defenseman Axel Hurtig to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal begins in the 2026-27 season. Hurtig was a seventh-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, after a year in Sweden’s U20 league. He played one more season in Sweden after his draft, before moving to the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen for the last two seasons.
Hurtig, 20, is a towering defenseman who took on a top-four role soon after joining the Hitmen. His 6-foot-5, 215-pound frame made Hurtig an effective rush-defender, where his long reach and strong physicality created little space for opponents to push past. He was quick to move the puck up ice after forcing turnovers but often left the role of joining the rush to his defense partners. In 119 games with the Hitmen, Hurtig only racked up 35 points – just narrowly more than the 21 points he scored in 77 games at Sweden’s U20 level.
Despite quiet scoring totals, Hurtig found his way towards routine impact. He played in all seven games of Sweden’s fourth-place finish at the 2025 World Junior Championships, recording 10 minutes of ice time on average to go with one point and a plus-two. That experience, and a knack for stepping up physically, helped Hurtig earn the Hitmen’s captaincy for the 2025-26 season. He became the first European captain in the team’s history. With a letter on his chest, Hurtig racked up 19 points, a team-best plus-21, and eight five-minute major penalties this season. His defensive presence helped the Hitmen finish the WHL season in eighth place.
Hurtig’s size should help him bridge the gap between junior and pro hockey. He will add another strong stick to the Flames’ left-defense depth chart and could fight for his NHL debut next season with an entry-level contract in place. The Flames have leaned heavily on young left-defenders, including Yan Kuznetsov and Kevin Bahl, through much of this season. They have also promoted puck-movers Zayne Parekh and Hunter Brzustewicz on the right-side. With a heap of young potential on the blue-line, Hurtig’s defensive presence will hope to round out Calgary’s future on the blue-line.
Flames Sign Jonathan Castagna To Entry-Level Contract
As expected, the Calgary Flames have signed one of their recently acquired prospects to his entry-level contract. Calgary announced that they’ve signed forward Jonathan Castagna to a three-year, $3.225MM ($1.075MM AAV) entry-level contract beginning next season. Outside of his AAV, the Flames didn’t provide any more contractual details.
Castagna, 20, was drafted with the 70th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft by the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes. He was playing in the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association with St. Andrew’s College at the time, scoring 29 goals and 72 points in 50 games.
The following year, Castagna began his collegiate career at Cornell University. He had a decent showing as a freshman, scoring 11 goals and 25 points in 35 games with a +20 rating. Unfortunately, he took a step back in his sophomore season, registering five goals and 15 points in 32 contests.
He rebounded in a big way this year. Although he only finished 40th in scoring throughout the entire NCAA, Castagna still had a point-per-game year, registering 15 goals and 34 points in 34 games with a +23 rating.
In an interesting way, that made him a more expendable prospect for the Utah Mammoth. The team is already flush with young top-six forwards and has other prospects on the way. Looking to make a splash at the deadline, the Mammoth included Castagna in the package for defenseman MacKenzie Weegar.
In their announcement, the Flames shared that Castagna will begin his professional career on an amateur tryout agreement with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. He’s dealing with a minor lower-body injury at the time being, so it’ll be a few days before he makes his professional debut.
Flames Trying To Sign Castagna
- With Cornell being eliminated from the NCAA tournament yesterday, the Flames have sent two front office staff to speak to Jonathan Castagna to try to get him to sign, reports Sportsnet’s Eric Francis (Twitter link). The 20-year-old was acquired as part of the return for MacKenzie Weegar earlier this month and is coming off a strong season that saw him record 15 goals and 19 assists in 34 games. Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg adds (Twitter link) that Calgary has two contract slots remaining and wants Castagna to fill one of those, suggesting that if he agrees to sign, his deal will begin this season.