Flames assign 2025 third-rounder Mace’o Phillips to the USHL

Following Sunday’s pair of split squad exhibition contests, the Calgary Flames have made a roster assignment to trim down their training camp group. On Monday morning, the club announced that they’ve assigned defenceman Mace’o Phillips to the United States Hockey League’s Green Bay Gamblers.

The move is not unexpected. Phillips, committed to attend the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2026, is in his gap year. He had the choice between playing the 2025-26 season with either the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks or the USHL’s Gamblers, and he opted to suit up in the USHL – he played a good chunk of the 2024-25 season in the USHL as part of the U.S. National Development Program’s under-18 team’s schedule, so he’s familiar with the league. Because he’s not currently attending college, he was allowed to attend Flames training camp since it wouldn’t conflict with school.

A product of Wayzata, Minnesota, Phillips is a 6’6″, 234 pound left shot blueliner. He was selected by the Flames in the third round, 80th overall, in the 2025 NHL Draft. A physical, defence-first shutdown type, Phillips posted six points during his draft year with the National Development Program. That said, the things he brings to the table were on full display in a pair of pretty impressive performances during the two rookie games with the Edmonton Oilers.

In short: man, he made the Oilers absolutely bonkers. Phillips used his size, reach and positioning to do a great job of (a) keeping the Oilers’ attackers to the outside and (b) shoving players around if they got in-between the dots in the Flames’ zone. And while he’s still pretty raw and needs some time to refine his game a bit, you can see the attributes that made the Flames excited about drafting him.

Phillips is expected to suit up this weekend for the Gamblers in the second weekend of the USHL schedule.

With Phillips’ assignment to Green Bay, that trims the Flames’ camp group down to 54 players: six goaltenders, 17 defencemen and 31 forwards. The Flames return to exhibition action on Tuesday night when they host the Seattle Kraken.