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Elias Lindholm, MacKenzie Weegar Unavailable Monday

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The Calgary Flames are without two key players tonight as they take on the Montreal Canadiens. Before puck drop, the team announced center Elias Lindholm and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar are out with an upper-body injury and a non-COVID illness, respectively.

Mikael Backlund slides up to the top line in Lindholm’s absence, while Connor Mackey makes his sixth appearance of the season in place of Weegar. Lindholm isn’t quite producing at last year’s clip, but he still leads the team in scoring with 23 points in 28 games. Weegar’s yet to score his first goal as a member of the Flames, but has six assists in 28 games and is averaging over 20 minutes per game. Still, Calgary would like some more offense out of Weegar, who had a career-high 44 points last season as a member of the Florida Panthers.

Calgary Flames Will Face Oilers In 2023 Heritage Classic In Edmonton

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  • Also from Hockey Night In Canada’s 32 Thoughts last night, the NHL has confirmed that the Heritage Classic will be returning to Edmonton next season. The game is expected to be played at Commonwealth Stadium sometime in October and will feature a Battle of Alberta between the Oilers and the Calgary Flames.

Calgary Flames Recall Radim Zohorna

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Moments after Kevin Rooney cleared waivers, the Calgary Flames announced a recall of another minor league forward. This time it’s Radim Zohorna coming up, with Rooney assigned to the AHL to make room.

Zohorna, 26, follows linemate Matthew Phillips to the NHL, who was recalled yesterday after an incredible start to the year. While the 6’6″ Zorhorna hasn’t been quite as effective, his 16 points in 20 games with the Calgary Wranglers were also impressive enough to earn a chance with the Flames. Claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins in October, the Flames managed to sneak him through a few days later when teams were finishing their final roster cuts. That was rather surprising, given the big Czech’s encouraging performance with Pittsburgh last season, which resulted in six points during his 17 NHL games.

Head coach Darryl Sutter has always employed size on his fourth line, and while Phillips is the opposite of that, Zohorna can more than make up for his 5’7″ teammate. The more diminutive of the two was skating with Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis today, but it remains to be seen whether Sutter will insert Zohorna into that group should they continue to struggle.

Lucic has yet to score a single goal this season and is averaging just over ten minutes a game, while Rooney had just one point in 17 appearances. With a back-to-back situation (and three road games in four nights) starting this evening against the Columbus Blue Jackets, there may be a chance to move pieces in and out, trying different combinations.

Five Players Clear Waivers

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Dec 9: All five players have cleared, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Rooney, Benson, Kaut, and Carpenter can now be assigned to the minor leagues, while Berglund’s contract will be terminated.

Dec 8: It’s a busy Thursday on the waiver wire, as Kevin Rooney of the Calgary Flames, Tyler Benson of the Edmonton Oilers, Martin Kaut of the Colorado Avalanche, and Ryan Carpenter of the New York Rangers are all available for claim, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Boston Bruins defenseman Victor Berglund has also been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a contract termination.

Rooney, 29, has not worked out quite as well as the Flames had hoped when they signed him to a two-year, $2.6MM contract in July. After scoring six goals and 12 points in 61 games last season for the New York Rangers, the depth forward has just a single assist in 17 matches for Calgary.

With today’s recall of Matthew Phillips, it appears as though the Flames will go in a different direction for their bottom six. Rooney’s contract will likely keep him from being claimed, though, meaning he can stay with the organization and try to get his game back on track. By moving him to the minor leagues, $1.125MM of his $1.3MM cap hit would come off the books.

For Benson, it’s not quite so rosy. The 24-year-old has played two games with the Oilers this season, barely seen the ice during them, and has no contract security past this year. The 32nd overall pick from 2016 has never been able to stick in the NHL despite strong numbers in the minor leagues, and appears to be a potential non-tender candidate next summer as an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent.

Kaut, 23, already cleared waivers at the beginning of this season, but had landed a regular spot in the Colorado lineup since and needed them again to go back to the minor leagues. The 2018 first-round pick has three points in 18 games this year, and was on the ice for multiple goals against in last night’s 4-0 loss to the Bruins.

The Avalanche haven’t been able to find any mix of depth forwards they are happy with, and continue to make changes on a near-daily basis. Kaut’s waiver placement doesn’t necessarily mean he’s headed back down, given all of the injuries they have. He also could be claimed, given his relatively young age and draft pedigree.

Carpenter, like Rooney, hasn’t been able to find the same level of play he had last season with his new team. The Rangers forward has just three points in 21 games and has become a fringe option, moving in and out of the lineup. Even with his familiarity with head coach Gerrard Galant, the Rangers can’t keep putting Carpenter out there without some more consistent play.

Berglund, 23, was picked 195th overall in 2017 and signed his entry-level deal in 2020. It is set to expire at the end of the year and he has barely played this season, meaning the two sides are just splitting a little early so he can chase a job somewhere else. The Swedish defenseman will be an unrestricted free agent and is likely headed back to Europe.

Calgary Flames Recall Matthew Phillips

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After completely dominating the minor leagues through the first two months of the season, Matthew Phillips has finally earned a recall. The Calgary Flames announced the call-up today, bringing up the AHL’s leading scorer ahead of a three-game Eastern Conference road trip through Columbus, Toronto, and Montreal.

Phillips, 24, has 15 goals and 30 points in 20 games so far this season, after posting an outstanding season with the Stockton Heat in 2021-22. Despite the 68 points he recorded, he never did earn a game in the NHL last year, and still sits at just one appearance – in 2020-21 – for his career.

Whether he actually gets into a game remains to be seen, but it’s hard to argue against his production to this point. Through 219 AHL games, Phillips has 191 points. The biggest reason for his lack of opportunity at the NHL level is his size, as the 2016 sixth-round pick is listed at just 5’8″ 160 lbs.

Still, the Flames have had some trouble scoring this year, and have just 81 goals in 26 games. While that has resulted in a decent record thanks to some stingy defensive play (nothing new for a Darryl Sutter-coached squad), there have been times when the club needed an offensive boost and couldn’t find it. Perhaps Phillips, should he get into the lineup on a regular basis, can provide some of that necessary secondary scoring.

Calgary Flames Assign Dennis Gilbert

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Nov 27: After some additional time on the active roster, Gilbert is heading back to the AHL. The team announced Sunday morning that he’d been assigned back to the Wranglers.

Nov 15: Gilbert has been recalled again, with DeSimone heading back to the AHL in his place.

Nov 13: Earlier this afternoon, the Calgary Flames announced that defenseman Dennis Gilbert has been assigned to the Calgary  Wranglers, their AHL affiliate. No corresponding move was announced. After sending Gilbert down, Calgary has seven defenseman on their roster, allowing them to maintain a bit of cap flexibility for a few days before their next road game on Thursday.

Gilbert had been recalled back on November 6th along with fellow defenseman Nick DeSimone in the wake of Michael Stone’s injury and subsequent placement on IR. With three left-handed defenseman already on the Flames roster, including Noah Hanifin, Nikita Zadorov, and Connor Mackey, as well as just $63K in cap space available prior to the assignment, the Flames were able to part with their 23rd player for the time being, playing just one home game tomorrow evening before their road trip.

Gilbert, 26, has been no stranger to the NHL/AHL shuffle throughout his five-year career, already splitting games between both the Flames and Wranglers in 2022-23. The defenseman has yet to tally a point through 10 games this season, eight of which have come in the AHL. However, his pair of NHL games this week did mark his first since he appeared in three games as a member of the Colorado Avalanche back in 2020-21.

Michael Stone Activated Off IR

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  • Flames defenseman Michael Stone has been activated off injured reserve, reports Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg (Twitter link). The veteran has missed the last ten games due to an undisclosed injury after putting up two goals and three assists in his first ten contests this season.  Calgary had an open roster spot so they didn’t need to make any corresponding move to activate Stone.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Calgary Flames

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As Thanksgiving and the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Calgary Flames. 

Who are the Flames thankful for?

Brad Treliving.

The Flames general manager is in his ninth season at the helm in Calgary, and before last season there were some who believed his seat was getting warm after a few difficult years.

Treliving’s choice to bring Darryl Sutter back to Alberta was a bold one, but it’s so far worked out extremely well as the bench boss recently won the Jack Adams Trophy. But the choice to hire Sutter isn’t why Flames fans are feeling thankful for Treliving this holiday season, it’s the moves he was able to make this past summer.

Early last summer, Treliving was put in an impossible situation. Two of his team’s most important players, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, had decided that they did not see a long-term future in Calgary. So despite the fact that he had a mandate to provide Sutter with a competitive roster, he now had to deal with the impending departures of his two most important wingers.

With Tkachuk, Treliving was able to pry a major trade package from the Florida Panthers, netting superstar winger Jonathan Huberdeau, quality all-around defenseman Mackenzie Weegar, a 2025 first-round pick, and prospect forward Cole Schwindt. Additionally, he was able to lock both Huberdeau and Weegar into long-term, market-rate contract extensions. Through the Tkachuk trade, Treliving had acquired two impact players who would be around long-term.

But he wasn’t done there. With the cap space saved through Gaudreau’s departure, Treliving signed center Nazem Kadri to a major contract.

While some worried that buying high on Kadri (who scored 87 points last season, far beyond his previous career-high of 61) would be a major miscalculation, Kadri has been worth his $7MM salary so far this season, as he has posted 15 points in 17 games.

Looking at the bigger picture beyond just the acquisitions of Kadri, Huberdeau, and Weegar, though, the Flames should be thankful for Treliving because of how he restored optimism to a beleaguered Calgary fanbase.

He was dealt an incredibly poor hand last summer and made the very most of it. While the Flames still have work to do this year to become a true Stanley Cup contender, Treliving is certainly someone for Calgary to be thankful for.

What are the Flames thankful for?

The Western Conference.

While the Flames haven’t gotten off to the best start, they remain just two points out from the Western Conference’s top Wild Card spot, with just one team (the St. Louis Blues) ahead of them on tiebreakers.

If the Flames were in the Eastern Conference, though, their 18 points would put three teams ahead of them in the chase for the second wild-card spot. If there’s one thing the Flames can be thankful for this season, it’s the fact that the West, at the moment, looks like the weaker of the NHL’s two conferences.

A lot of the difference between the Eastern Conference and Western Conference has to do with philosophy. There are quite a few teams in the West who fully expect to remain near the bottom of the standings for the duration of this season. The Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Anaheim Ducks are all more focused on their future than their present.

The Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks may have each intended on being a contender this season, but they have each begun their season quite poorly and will need to improve significantly to be competitive.

Even one of the teams currently occupying one of the Western Conference’s playoff spots, the Seattle Kraken, looks to be a Martin Jones injury or decline in form away from a drop in the standings.

If the Flames were in the Eastern Conference, their path to a playoff spot would likely look a lot more treacherous. The NHL is a league of parity and they’ll still need to improve in order to get there, of course, but at the moment their path to the postseason looks more comfortable than the daunting journey some Eastern Conference clubs are currently staring down. That’s definitely something for Calgary to be thankful for.

What would the Flames be even more thankful for?

Chemistry between Jonathan Huberdeau and the Flames’ other star forwards.

Jonathan Huberdeau hasn’t been bad so far this season, but his eight points of production in 14 games is a 47-point scoring pace, a far, far cry from the 115 points he scored last year. So far, Huberdeau has struggled to find a fit on a Flames line, and the first-line left-winger spot next to Elias Lindholm is currently being occupied by a red-hot Adam Ruzicka, rather than Huberdeau.

For Huberdeau to be able to reach the heights he hit as a Panther, he’ll need to find a way to gel with one of the Flames’ top two centers, Lindholm or Kadri.

He’s locked up until the summer of 2031, of course, so he has some time to find the right fit, but if the Flames want to really get going this season they’ll need to find the right landing spot for their superstar winger.

There’s no reason to be overly worried at this point, Huberdeau’s talent didn’t simply evaporate on the journey from Florida to Alberta. But if Huberdeau could find a way to click with Kadri or Lindholm and cement his place on one of the top two lines, that would give the Flames even more to be thankful for this holiday season.

What should be on the Flames’ holiday wish list?

Improved goaltending.

The Flames have given up 58 goals this season, which is around the NHL average at this point in the season. That’s not a major issue on its own, but for a Flames club that prides itself in defensive responsibility and being tough to score against, it’s a figure that needs to be improved.

Despite the absence of Oliver Kylington, a lack of defensive talent isn’t to blame for the goals they’ve let in. The Flames still have a top-four on defense that includes Weegar, Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson, and Nikita Zadorov.

There are few teams that can boast a more talented set of top-four defensemen.

No, the main issue for the Flames has been their lackluster goaltending. Starting netminder Jacob Markstrom was a Vezina Trophy contender last season, as he posted a .922 save percentage in 63 games. This year, he has an .887 in 14 games.

Daniel Vladar, the team’s backup, is in a similar situation. After posting a .906 save percentage last year, Vladar has just a .881 this year, a significant decline.

While the fact that both goalies have seen their save percentages decline suggests there is more at play than simply lackluster performance in net, the reality is the Flames’ goalie tandem has to be better.

Sutter has the Flames play a specific style of hockey, and the success of his system relies on their goaltending often being the final nail in the opposing team’s coffin. There were nights last season when Markstrom looked unbeatable. This year, those nights have been few and far between.

The success of the Flames’ goalies is integral to their team identity, so getting improved performance from each netminder should be the top item on the Flames’ wish list this winter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jonathan Huberdeau Close To Returning

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  • Jonathan Huberdeau, who has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, skated with the Calgary Flames this morning, reports Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg. The nature of the injury had been a bit unclear, however Steinberg adds that Huberdeau said he had blocked a shot during Monday’s loss to the New York Islanders, causing his foot to swell up. The winger added that the foot is fine now and he plans to start wearing shot blockers on his feet going forward. Even though Huberdeau’s early performance this season has been underwhelming, Calgary will need him to produce if they want to get back on track themselves, and that won’t be able to happen until the superstar rejoins the lineup. Right now, the Flames are preparing to host the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow night, but there’s still no official confirmation on Huberdeau’s return, though Huberdeau himself appears confident he’ll be playing, per his media availability. After tomorrow, Calgary departs for a six-game road trip which begins Thursday.

Blake Coleman Fined For Slew-Footing

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The NHL and the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced today that Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman was fined $5,000.00, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for slew-footing Winnipeg Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois in last night’s game. That money will go to the Players Emergency Assistance Fund.

The incident occurred at 18:30 of the first period, as Coleman and Dubois skated together through the slot area. The two appeared to be tangled up, both falling and crashing into an unoccupied net. Upon a closer look, Coleman appeared to slew-foot Dubois. Both players were assessed a minor penalty on the play, Coleman for tripping and Dubois for holding.

Luckily for both team and player, Coleman was able to avoid suspension and simply earned the fine. However, this fine will go into his record and could be considered in future disciplinary cases, if any. Worth noting, Coleman has been suspended once before. That incident came back in October of last season, when the veteran was banned one preseason game and one regular season game for boarding Jets forward Jansen Harkins.

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