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Calgary Flames Kevin Rooney Clears Waivers

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1/9: Rooney has cleared waivers and is awaiting assignment.

1/8: The Calgary Flames have placed forward Kevin Rooney on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move is a precursor to Rooney getting activated off of long-term injured reserve, as should he clear waivers the Flames would be able to activate him and assign him to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers.

In addition to this move, Sportsnet 960’s Patt Steinberg reports that forward Jakob Pelletier has been activated off of season-opening injured reserve and been assigned to the Wranglers. Pelletier is recovering from shoulder surgery, and now he can get into some AHL practices as part of that recovery. Long-term, the expectation is likely that Pelletier will return to the NHL level as that is where he scored seven points in 24 games last season.

As for Rooney, the six-foot-two veteran pivot was originally signed by the Flames to a $1.3MM AAV contract in order to serve as their fourth-line center. He’d filled that role admirably for the New York Rangers for the prior two seasons, and was fresh off of a run with the club to the Eastern Conference Final.

Rooney struggled in Calgary, and only played in 17 NHL games last season compared to 51 in the AHL. Now likely to be a Wrangler once again, the Flames will be tagged with $150k against the cap from Rooney’s deal as $1.15MM of the full $1.3MM total is considered “buried” when Rooney is on the AHL roster.

Calgary Flames Bring Yan Kuznetsov Back Up

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1/9: The Calgary Flames brought Kuznetsov back to the NHL on Tuesday, after sending him down on Monday.

1/8: The Calgary Flames have reassigned defenseman Yan Kuznetsov back to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers. This move comes just a few short days after Kuznetsov was first recalled from the AHL, and places him back with their top developmental affiliate before he’s had the chance to make his NHL debut.

The 21-year-old served as a spare blueliner for the Flames during their two road losses against the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks. There was some hope that the big 2020 second-round pick might draw into the Flames’ lineup in place of a player such as Jordan Oesterle, but that did not end up being the case.

Blueliner Dennis Gilbert was on the receiving end of a scary hit against the Nashville Predators, and although he has not played since he appears to not be in line to miss significant time. As a result, Kuznetsov is no longer needed on the Flames’ roster as a spare defenseman. And with Oliver Kylington working his way back to full NHL readiness, that’s another factor contributing to the general sense that Kuznetsov doesn’t quite have a place in the NHL with the Flames just yet.

That’s not to say he won’t have his place there relatively soon, of course. The big defenseman was solid in his first AHL campaign last year and has been making progress this season as well. Ilya Solovyov might be ahead of him on the depth chart at the current moment, as he’s already played in six NHL games, but Kuznetsov isn’t far off and this original recall illustrated that.

Snapshots: Flames, Three Stars, Lightning

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The Fourth Period is reporting that the Calgary Flames picked up trade talks with several teams last week as they look to potentially move on from several pending unrestricted free agents. The Fourth Period cited sources saying that the New Jersey Devils were one of the teams they talked to and even linked the Devils to both Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev.

The Flames currently have a record of 15-16-5 through their first 36 games which puts them five points out of a playoff spot as they near the halfway point of the regular season. The team will have a big decision to make in the coming weeks as they also have center Elias Lindholm on an expiring contract, and he is reportedly looking for a deal in the range of $9MM annually.

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta also believes that teams have expressed interest in Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, but it’s hard to believe Calgary would deal him given that he is in the first year of an eight-year contract and has a full no-trade clause.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The NHL has announced its Three Stars of the Month, with Nathan MacKinnon taking First Star, Auston Matthews winning Second Star, and Connor Hellebuyck being named Third Star. MacKinnon won on the heels of an 11-goal, 29-point performance in 15 games in December, while Matthew’s put up 15 goals and six assists in just 12 games. Hellebuyck’s December performance saw him post an impressive 7-0-2 record, which was good enough for a Third Star.
  • Tampa Bay Lightning writer Chris Krenn is reporting that the Lightning were forced to dress just five defensemen tonight due to injuries and salary cap constraints. The Lightning lost Erik Cernak and Haydn Fleury recently to injury and with no cap space to make a recall, the Lightning were forced to play the Winnipeg Jets one defender short of a full six. The Lightning will be eligible to make an emergency recall after tonight, but due to the language in the Roster Emergency Exception rule, they must wait until the second game to be eligible to recall a player under emergency conditions.

Rasmus Andersson Misses Practice With Illness

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  • The flu bug is continuing to spread around the NHL, with Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson missing the team’s Friday practice with illness. The team did not share any updates about Andersson’s availability for their Sunday night matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. Andersson has appeared in 31 games this season, leading Flames defenders in scoring with 18 points.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Flames, Elias Lindholm Likely Remain Headed For Trade

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Pending unrestricted free agent center Elias Lindholm hasn’t ruled out the possibility of signing an extension with the Calgary Flames, but a trade before the March 8 deadline remains the most likely scenario, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and TSN wrote in a column Friday morning.

The future of the Flames’ many high-end class of 2024 unrestricted free agents has been a central talking point ever since last season drew to a close. They’ve already made decisions on three of them. Last season’s leading point-getter Tyler Toffoli was traded to the Devils over the summer, 16-year veteran Mikael Backlund was given a two-year, $9MM extension and the captaincy, and shutdown defenseman Nikita Zadorov was dealt to the Canucks last month. A handful of essential players remain without contracts past this season, none more so than Lindholm.

LeBrun says the Flames “haven’t definitely told Lindholm they’re planning to move him,” but that hasn’t stopped interest from growing around the league. He explicitly names three squads as likely landing spots – the Bruins, Avalanche and Hurricanes – with the Bruins confirmed to “have some level of interest” based on his reporting. He did not confirm the Avalanche have acquired specifically about Lindholm but does believe their cap-clearing move of trading winger Tomáš Tatar to the Kraken earlier this month helps open the door for them to add a big name to their top-six forward group.

The Hurricanes are not confirmed to have any level of interest. While a fit makes sense, LeBrun rightly points out Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s historical unwillingness to spend assets on rental players could complicate a move. Lindholm, Carolina’s 2013 fifth-overall pick, has already had extension talks fall through with the club once, resulting in his 2018 trade to Calgary.

Both the Bruins and Avalanche have an obvious need for a top-six center. Boston has received admirable performances from Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle, who anchor their top two lines (with rookie Matthew Poitras behind them). Still, neither player has a long enough track record of shouldering top-six minutes at an above-average level long enough for the comfort of a contender. Lindholm more directly fills the gigantic shutdown center void left by the retirement of former captain Patrice Bergeron last summer, as pointed out numerous times since the Lindholm trade rumor mill began to spin a few months ago.

Boston has been plagued by a thin prospect pipeline and rocky future for seasons on end now, although they’ve seemingly come back from near-dead numerous times to remain in the league’s contending class. They can’t keep that up forever, though, and acquiring Lindholm would require parting with one of the few high-value assets they have left in their system. Short-term salary cap management is also prohibitive, as the Bruins have $26MM in cap space to allocate over nine open roster spots next season. Lindholm could quickly swallow up at least 30 percent of that space.

The Avalanche have a more pressing need on their second line. They took a flyer on 31-year-old Ryan Johansen over the summer, acquiring him at half-salary retention from the Predators, making him a $4MM player through 2025. Ideally, Johansen could rebound in a new system to the 50-60 point pace he posted during his prime with the Blue Jackets and Predators in the 2010s, but it hasn’t panned out. He ranks fourth on the team with ten goals through 33 games, but he’s recorded just two assists – giving him 12 points, a 0.36 point per game pace, and ice time that’s dipped below the 15-minute-per-game mark. None of those metrics are representative of an average second-line center, let alone one adequate enough to help the Avalanche capture their second Stanley Cup in three years.

Nathan MacKinnon can do (and has done) most of the heavy lifting, but Lindholm would be an immeasurable boost to their forward group. He’s on pace for 57 points this season, not breaking the bank by any metric, and is having the worst possession season of his career with a 47.6% Corsi share at even strength. Lindholm is turning things around, though, still routinely averaging over 20 minutes per game and posting a goal and five assists in his last five games. He would plug the hole that’s been vacant in Colorado since Nazem Kadri departed the team (ironically for Calgary) in free agency after his career-best season was instrumental in helping Colorado win their first Stanley Cup in over 20 years.

In any event, no trade seems imminent. Any potential Lindholm deal is likely to happen much closer to the trade deadline.

Calgary Flames Activate Jacob Markström

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The Calgary Flames have activated netminder Jacob Markström off of injured reserve. In corresponding moves, defenseman Ilya Solovyov and netminder Dustin Wolf have been reassigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.

Markström has been out of the Flames’ lineup since December 2nd, but when healthy he’s been the team’s undisputed number-one goalie. Now that his broken finger has recovered enough to allow him to play, Markström will resume that number-one role for the Flames.

Although he hasn’t been in strong form for over a year, but as recently as 2021-22 he posted a .922 save percentage in 63 games played. At his best, Markström can be one of the league’s best goalies, and the Flames need him to play like that if they want to re-enter the Western Conference playoff picture.

Heading back to the AHL is Wolf, one of the league’s top goalie prospects. He’s absolutely dominated that level over the course of the last two seasons, but hasn’t quite found his footing in the NHL yet.

As for Solovyov, he made his NHL debut this season at the age of 23. The 2020 seventh-round pick has averaged 14:59 in his six games of NHL experience so far this season and has registered two assists.

Tanev And Markstrom Are Close To Returning

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TSN’s Ryan Rishaug is reporting that Edmonton Oilers forward Dylan Holloway won’t be back in the lineup until after Christmas at the earliest. The 22-year-old suffered a knee injury a little over a month ago and was placed on the injured reserve on November 14th. His injury was considered month-to-month at the time and given the timeline today’s update isn’t all that surprising.

Holloway was the Oilers’ 14th overall selection in the 2020 NHL entry draft and has spent most of the last two seasons in Edmonton. This year with the Oilers the Calgary, Alberta native has just a single goal in 14 games which happened in the game prior to him being knocked out of the lineup with this injury.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Herald is reporting that Calgary Flames defenseman Chris Tanev is nearing a return from injury. Gilbertson said that when speaking with the media Flames head coach Ryan Huska referred to Tanev as being very close to a return. The 33-year-old has missed the last three games for Calgary with an upper-body injury and is sure to be eager to rejoin the team as he tries to continue boosting his free-agent stock for next summer. Tanev hasn’t produced much offensively this year with a goal and six assists in 28 games but he continues to offer a strong defensive impact and will surely be in demand at the trade deadline as well as next summer.
  • Gilbertson also reported that Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom is close to a return. The 33-year-old netminder has missed the last seven games with a fractured finger and skated in the club’s morning skate today. Markstrom has not had the start to the season he was hoping for as he has gone 6-8-2 with a 2.94 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage. Markstrom’s return will likely lead the Flames to an interesting decision with their goaltending as prospect Dustin Wolf has been dynamite in the AHL but has struggled in his short time in the NHL. The Flames also have Daniel Vladar as an option, but he’s struggled the most of the Flames’ three goaltending options and could be moved in a trade or exposed to waivers and assigned to the AHL.

Flames Notes: Tanev, DeSimone, Dube

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There has certainly been no shortage of trade speculation surrounding Flames defenseman Chris Tanev.  A pending unrestricted free agent, he’s the type of shutdown blueliner that many teams would covet.  However, as Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic notes (subscription link), Calgary’s preference is still believed to be to sign him to an extension, preferably a two-year agreement.  The soon-to-be 34-year-old is currently injured with no timetable yet for a return which will further stall any possible trade discussions.  Tanev has a $4.5MM AAV and it will likely take something close to that to get him to put pen to paper on an early extension if he decides he’d like to stay with the Flames.

More from Calgary:

  • In Calgary’s last game, defenseman Nick DeSimone played in his tenth game, meaning he will now have to pass through waivers to return to the minors. With plenty of trade speculation surrounding Tanev and Noah Hanifin, it’s fair to wonder if GM Craig Conroy may be hesitant to risk losing DeSimone for free if he tries to send him back down.  The 29-year-old has four assists in those ten appearances while logging a little under 13 minutes a night.
  • One of the bigger questions surrounding the Flames revolves around winger Dillon Dube, opines Postmedia’s Danny Austin. After spending a lot of last season in a top-six role where he set career highs offensively with 18 goals and 45 points, the 25-year-old has struggled mightily this season, notching just three goals and four helpers thus far in 29 games.  Notably, his ice time has dipped below the ten-minute mark in four of the last five games.  Dube is a pending restricted free agent this coming summer, owed a $2.4MM qualifying offer with arbitration eligibility.  If things don’t pick up for him in the coming weeks, his name could be in trade speculation leading up to the trade deadline.

Jacob Markstrom Skates With AHL Wranglers

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  • Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom practiced on Wednesday with their AHL affiliate, relays Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson. The 33-year-old has been out for the last week and a half with a finger injury but Gilbertson pointed out that Markstrom didn’t seem to be limited at all which suggests the netminder could be nearing a return.  Calgary has a full roster at the moment although that can easily be addressed by returning top prospect Dustin Wolf back to the Wranglers.

Calgary Flames Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Calgary Flames made several roster moves today, announcing that the team has recalled defenseman Nick DeSimone from their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers, while subsequently sending down forward Matthew Coronato. On the injury front, the team also relayed that defenseman Chris Tanev is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and will not play in the team’s game tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights.

After placing fellow defenseman Jordan Oesterle on waivers towards the beginning of the season, DeSimone quickly became a stable presence on the blue line, scoring four points in eight games, and averaging just under 13 minutes of ice time per game. As the team regained salary cap flexibility due to the trade of Nikita Zadorov to the Vancouver Canucks, the Flames would recall Oesterle from the AHL, and send DeSimone back to the Wranglers on November 26th.

Much like DeSimone, Coronato has split time this season between the NHL and the AHL, only managing two points in 11 games when playing for Calgary. One of the team’s more notable up-and-coming prospects, Coronato is having quite the season with the Wranglers already, scoring eight goals and 18 points in only 14 games. Even though the team has re-entered the playoff conversation over the last couple of weeks, the Flames are still largely considered sellers heading into trade season, meaning Coronato may earn a full-time spot with the team if the forward core is thinned out.

In the context of the trade deadline picture, Tanev is thought to be one of the more sought-after defensemen on the market, primarily being linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Luckily, in terms of his trade value for the Flames, Tanev should only miss a game or two, meaning the return package in any deal shouldn’t be negatively impacted by the injury.

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