- TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that further tests will be conducted to assess the severity of Connor Zary’s knee injury. The young forward for the Calgary Flames awkwardly collided with the Dallas Stars’ Mikko Rantanen shortly into the third period of last night’s contest and required help getting off the ice after a lengthy meet with the trainer. Fortunately, Dreger believes the early prognosis of Zary’s injury was positive. Still, as the fifth-highest scoring forward on the Flames with 27 points in 54 games, Calgary will need Zary in the lineup should they have any hope of catching up to the St. Louis Blues for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
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Flames Rumors
Mikael Backlund Returns To The Lineup
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice believes that defenseman Dmitry Kulikov could return to the lineup during the last week of the NHL regular season (as per Panthers Senior Digital Content Manager Jameson Olive). Kulikov is sidelined with an upper-body injury that has kept him out of the last three games, but he could return just in time for the playoffs.
The 34-year-old isn’t the producer he once was but has averaged 19:17 of ice time per game this season in 68 games. The 16-year NHL veteran has tallied four goals and nine assists this season along with a +13 plus/minus. However, he has struggled with the puck, committing 72 turnovers which eclipses his career high by nearly 20.
In other morning notes:
- Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate the San Diego Gulls, tweeted that forward Nathan Gaucher had successful shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the 2024-25 season as he will need a 4-6 month recovery. Gaucher was the Ducks first-round pick in 2022 (22nd overall) and had a labral tear in his left shoulder that could cause him to miss the start of next season while he recovers. The 21-year-old hasn’t found his offensive game in the AHL to this point in his young career, producing just eight goals and 11 assists this season in 56 AHL games. While the start to his professional career has been disappointing, Gaucher is just two years removed from representing Team Canada at the World Juniors and certainly possesses the physical gifts to make it as a top-nine NHL forward.
- The Calgary Flames received some good news on the injury front last night as captain Mikael Backlund returned to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury (as per Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg). The 36-year-old had last played on March 12th against Vancouver and should give an added boost to the Flames as they try and chase down a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Backlund is in his 17th NHL season and still provides solid two-way play for Calgary, even if his offensive numbers aren’t what they used to be. Backlund has just 11 goals and 13 assists this season in 65 games, but his deployment has been skewed towards the defensive side of the game this season, which makes sense given that he has received Selke Trophy consideration in seven of the last eight years.
Flames To Sign Owen Say To Entry-Level Contract
The Flames have signed goaltender Owen Say to a one-year contract worth $872,500 for the 2025-26 campaign. While the team announced it as a two-way deal, it’ll be an entry-level one since his age on Sep. 15 of the calendar year the agreement was signed will be 24.
Say, who turns 24 in June, is an undrafted free-agent pickup out of Notre Dame. He started his collegiate career at Mercyhurst in 2022-23 but transferred to the Fighting Irish for his junior year last summer.
The 6’2″ Canadian has steadily upped his numbers in the NCAA ranks, averaging a .914 SV% and a 3.09 GAA across 69 career appearances for the two schools. He posted a .903 and .913 in his two seasons behind a weak Mercyhurst club before bettering himself with a 2.82 GAA and a .920 SV% in 27 games for Notre Dame. While they finished last in the Big 10, Say had a 10-15-0 record and posted those numbers behind the conference’s worst defense.
Assuming they filed this deal as a standard two-way contract, as they announced it, instead of an entry-level one, the league will likely reject it, and they’ll need to re-file it properly as an ELC. Calgary made the opposite mistake last season when attempting to sign forward Sam Morton out of college – while he was 24 at the time of signing, he turned 25 before Sep. 15. He was thus ineligible for the entry-level contract they attempted to sign him to. The league rejected the deal and had to re-file it as a two-way agreement.
Say will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2026. Calgary now has 24 contracts on the books for next season.
MacKenzie Weegar Out With Lower-Body Injury
- The Calgary Flames were without their top defenseman today as they announced MacKenzie Weegar was out due to a lower-body injury. Weegar initially intended to play, and even skated through most of the warmup before deciding the injury would preclude him from the lineup. Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like a major injury, as multiple reports indicate Weegar will return to action on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken.
- Sticking in southern Alberta, forward Joel Farabee was also absent from the Flames’ lineup due to an illness (Twitter Link). Farabee, acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in late January, hasn’t responded well since moving north of the Canada/United States border. Since donning the flaming ’C’, Farabee has only mustered three goals and two assists over 18 games in his new home.
[SOURCE LINK]
Flames’ Mikael Backlund Out Week-To-Week
Flames captain Mikael Backlund sustained an upper-body injury in Wednesday’s shootout loss to the Canucks, the team confirmed. He’s listed as week-to-week.
Backlund left the game midway through the first period and didn’t return after laying a hit on Vancouver defenseman Victor Mancini. The centerman skated off under his own power, but appeared to slightly twist his left shoulder/upper arm area while making the check.
With just over a month remaining in the regular season, it’s likely not a campaign-ender for Backlund – at least, the Flames hope so. They also lost forward Connor Zary to a two-game suspension after the loss. Hence, they’re now down a pair of top-nine fixtures for their next two games, both against playoff-bound teams in the Avalanche and Maple Leafs, as they look to outlast the Canucks, Blues, and Utah for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Backlund, who turns 36 next week, hasn’t missed a game since the 2020-21 campaign. His offensive totals have continued to decline over the past few years, producing just 11-13–24 through 64 games this year, but remains a top-tier defensive forward. He’s averaged nearly 19 minutes per game for the Flames this year while controlling 51.8% of shot attempts despite seeing only 37.7% of his even-strength zone starts in the offensive end.
Now in his 17th year with the Flames, Backlund is in the first season of the two-year, $9MM extension he signed in training camp in 2023. He’s eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2026.
With Backlund confirmed out, Calgary’s recall of winger Dryden Hunt today qualifies as an emergency. They still have three of their four post-deadline recalls remaining after summoning Adam Klapka from the minors earlier this week. Hunt, 29, ranks second on the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers in scoring with 15-33–48 in 48 games. The 6’0″ depth forward will presumably draw into a bottom-six role for his first NHL game since Feb. 8, which marked his only NHL appearance of the season so far.
Flames’ Connor Zary Suspended Two Games
Flames forward Connor Zary has been suspended two games for elbowing Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson in last night’s game, the league’s Department of Player Safety announced.
In their video statement, DoPS described the incident as follows:
Wednesday night in Calgary, Flames forward Connor Zary was penalized for extending his elbow to deliver a late, high retaliatory hit against Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson. As the video shows, the Flames skate the puck through the neutral zone with Pettersson defending and Zary on the rush in support. The puck is flipped towards the net and Pettersson finishes a clean, hard check on a Flames player. Then, after the hit and disregarding the rest of the play, Zary tracks Pettersson, raises his elbow and forearm, and elevates upward into a check, striking Pettersson with the extended arm and making significant contact with Pettersson’s head. This is elbowing.
Regarding their rationale for supplemental discipline:
It is important to note that this is not a case where a player’s sudden movements cause a hitter to reflexively extend an elbow in a way that turns a legal hit into an illegal one. On this play, Zary sees a teammate take a hard but legal check and responds intentionally in retribution by delivering a hit with his extended elbow that makes significant head contact and is delivered with reckless force for supplemental discipline.
Zary has never been fined or suspended before, something the league undoubtedly took into consideration during his hearing this morning. The 23-year-old, whom Calgary selected in the first round in 2020, is in just his second NHL season with 112 career games under his belt.
After finishing eighth in Calder Trophy voting last season, Zary has cemented himself as an important middle-six contributor for the Flames. He ranks sixth on the team among qualified skaters in points per game (0.49) and has averaged nearly 16 minutes per game, including regular second-unit power play deployment. His absence, plus injury concerns surrounding captain Mikael Backlund after he left last night’s game, will likely force Calgary to recall a forward from the AHL before tomorrow’s game against the Avalanche. If Backlund is out, they’d be able to recall someone under emergency conditions and not use their second of four post-deadline standard recalls. They already burned one on Adam Klapka this week.
That’s tough news for a Flames squad that already lost some ground in the wild-card race by dropping last night’s contest to their chief competitors for the spot in a shootout. They’re tied with the Canucks at 71 points but have a game in hand, so they remain in playoff position for now. The Blues and Utah are each two points back of Calgary as well, but like Vancouver, have played one more game than the Flames.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Connor Zary Having Player Safety Hearing Thursday
Second-year Flames forward Connor Zary is facing a suspension after he elbowed Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson in last night’s shootout loss, per the league’s Department of Player Safety. Officials assessed Zary a minor penalty for interference on the play, which occurred midway through the first period. The Calgary forward laid a retaliatory check on Pettersson after the rearguard laid a heavy hit on Flames center Nazem Kadri, leaving the ice and seemingly making Pettersson’s head the main point of contact (video via B/R Open Ice). Pettersson only took two more shifts before leaving the game entirely in the second period. This will be the first supplemental discipline, including fines, of Zary’s brief NHL career. The 2020 first-rounder is tied for sixth on the team in scoring this season with 12-12–24 in 49 games. He missed most of January and February with a knee injury, which kept him out of 15 games.
Flames Recall Adam Klapka
Adam Klapka has been added back to the Flames’ roster, per a team announcement. He’s now been recalled from AHL Calgary for the fifth time this season and marks the first of the Flames’ four allotted post-deadline recalls.
Last week, Calgary reassigned the hulking 24-year-old on deadline day to make him eligible to suit up for the Wranglers in the Calder Cup Playoffs. They waited a few days to bring him back to the NHL, but he’s once again available to dress after spending most of the post-4 Nations schedule so far up with the big club. He’s scored once in 13 NHL games this year, averaging 8:10 per game.
The 6’8″ forward arrived in the Flames organization in 2022, when they signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Czechia’s Bili Tygri Liberec. In addition to his 236-lb frame, he’s proven an effective scorer in the minors as well. He has 48-49–97 in 158 games with the Wranglers over the past three years, including 14-12–26 in 33 games this year with 50 PIMs and a minus-one rating.
The Flames now have 22 players on their active roster, including 13 forwards. Klapka will likely be an extra forward for tonight’s huge game against the Canucks, their chief competitor for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, but is theoretically available to draw in.
Klapka, a pending restricted free agent, will need a new deal this summer and is eligible for salary arbitration. If he re-signs and doesn’t make the team out of camp in the fall, he’ll need to clear waivers on his way down to the AHL.
Flames Weren't Interested In Being Third-Party Retainer On Multi-Year Contracts
- The Flames were hoping to act as a third-party broker heading into the deadline, relays Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Herald. However, it doesn’t appear that any options were available to Calgary on rental contracts. While they had options to act as a retainer for a contract that ran through next season, Calgary was not willing to take on dead money beyond this year, keeping their salary cap flexibility as much as possible.
Flames’ Dustin Wolf Should Be Separating From Calder Trophy Pack
The 2025 Calder Trophy race is living up to every bit of the excitement it’s built up over the last few years. There are star options at every single position, with San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, Philadelphia Flyers winger Matvei Michkov, and Montreal Canadiens defender Lane Hutson receiving the most acclaim. But the focus on high-scoring skaters has left behind the focus that should be going to star Calgary Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf, as he nearly single-handedly blazes a rebuilding Flames to the postseason.
Wolf has been dazzling since the start of the season. He opened the year with a three-game win streak and .936 save percentage. By the end of December, Wolf had full claim over Calgary’s starter’s crease, and a fantastic 12-5-2 record and .914 save percentage to show for it. Even better, he’s managed to find a second gear since the calendar turned over. Wolf ranks ninth in the NHL with 10 wins, and sixth in save percentage with a .916, since January 1st. His statline has placed him in the company of potential Vezina Trophy candidates like Connor Hellebuyck, Logan Thompson, and Darcy Kuemper.
The performance is almost hard to believe. Wolf’s season-long .915 save percentage ranks sixth in the NHL this season – and marks the highest from a U24 starting goaltender since Jeremy Swayman managed the same total in 2021-22. At an age where the top echelon of goaltender begin to separate from the pack, Wolf has shown his ability to perform on a nightly basis.
Even better, he’s managed it behind a Flames roster that entered the season seemingly in the midst of a rebuild. Calgary is on the tail end of one of the biggest fire-sales in recent memory, shipping off each of Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Jacob Markstrom, Andrew Mangiapane, Elias Lindholm, and Nikita Zadorov in and around the the 2023-24 season. That’s massive turnover – and forced big roles onto veterans that stuck around, like Rasmus Andersson and Nazem Kadri, and top youngsters, like Matthew Coronato, Connor Zary, and Kevin Bahl. The ensuing instability has shown in Calgary’s on-ice results. They’ve allowed the eighth-most shots-against per-game this season (29.2), and the highest expected goals-against per-60 (xGA/60) of any Western Conference team in the race for the playoffs (2.43) per MoneyPuck.
Despite the bombardment they face, Calgary has also allowed the 12th-fewest goals of any team in the league (181). Wolf’s consistency has willed the Flames to the Western Conference’s second Wild Card slot, even as they sit with a -20 goal differential (161-to-181). They’ve allowed the 12th-fewest goals in the league, with Wolf on track to record 50 starts in his rookie season.
It’s far harder to measure a goaltender’s value at a glance than it is to measure a skater’s. Hutson, Celebrini, and Michkov leading NHL rookies in scoring with
49, 48, and 47 points respectively puts them into a clear top-notch group. Hutson leading the pack as a defenseman is an even deeper sentiment. But none of the trio have quite broken away from the rest of their position group. Celebrini and Michkov remain buried in forward scoring. Hutson ranks eighth in points from a defenseman, though he’s the only one in the top 10 with a negative plus-minus. Meanwhile, Wolf ranks sixth in save percentage (.915), 11th in total wins (22), and 13th in goals-against average (2.52). He’s quickly jumped into company with the NHL’s best netminders in his first real opportunity, all while operating with the precedent of a former seventh-round pick standing at just six-foot tall.
The Calder Trophy hasn’t gone to a netminder since Steve Mason won it with the 2008-09 Columbus Blue Jackets. Mason tied for the 11th-highest save percentage (.916) and 10th-most wins (33), and outright earned the second-highest goals-against average (2.29) that season. The Calder win was marked by Mason quickly earning Columbus’ starting role and near single-handedly willing the team to their first postseason berth in franchise history, after seven years without one. His performance may stand a slide head taller than Wolf’s, but the two seasons are eerily similar. Mason beat out (second in voting), Drew Doughty (fifth), and Steven Stamkos (ninth) – among others – for the 2009 Calder Trophy. Wolf’s competition may be a bit more direct this year – but past precedent could, and should, be enough to bestow the new face of Calgary’s crease with the Rookie of the Year title.