For the time being, the Calgary Flames have trimmed down their active roster to 22 players. Forward Dryden Hunt cleared waivers on Wednesday morning, per a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. And per the American Hockey League’s website, he was subsequently assigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.
Originally acquired at the 2023 trade deadline by the Flames from the Toronto Maple Leafs (in exchange for Radim Zohorna), the 27-year-old Hunt is a fairly versatile left shot winger. He signed a two-year, two-way deal with the Flames during the summer and made the NHL roster out of training camp.
But Hunt failed to really move the needle in the NHL – he wasn’t bad, he just didn’t make much of a difference – and with Adam Ruzicka returning from injury and the emergence of Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary as potential full-time NHLers, somebody had to lose NHL time. (The Flames have typically carried one extra forward and defender for a 22-man roster.)
Hunt’s assignment to the AHL reduces the Flames’ NHL active roster to 22 players (two goaltenders, seven defenders and 13 forwards) and puts them about $1.524 million below their LTIR spending ceiling. They don’t accumulate any future space, but it gives them some short-term roster flexibility. And it gives a Wranglers team that recently lost a couple of their best forwards a pretty useful veteran player.
The Flames are back in action on Friday in Toronto. The Wranglers are back in action on Friday in San Diego.
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