Flames defender Daniil Miromanov clears waivers

The Calgary Flames have a bit more roster flexibility, at least for the next while.

Per multiple reports, blueliner Daniil Miromanov has cleared waivers after being placed on waivers on Monday at noon.

Because Miromanov has cleared waivers, there are a lot of options available to the Flames now.

Miromanov can be moved to and from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers freely until he has either cumulatively (a) spent 30 days on the NHL roster or (b) dressed for 10 NHL games. Once he’s hit either of those thresholds, he would require waivers once more.

Miromanov’s current deal has a $1.25 million cap hit at the NHL level. Under the terms of the CBA, up to $1.15 million of any deal can be buried in the AHL if that player is assigned there. That means that whenever Miromanov is assigned to the AHL, his cap hit at the NHL level would be reduced to just $100,000. (A similar thing happened last season when the Flames assigned Tyson Barrie to the Wranglers late in the season.)

The Flames are currently carrying 23 players on their roster: two goaltenders, eight defencemen and 13 forwards. Whenever Martin Pospisil is able to return from injury, he’ll need a roster spot, so the seeming end goal of waiver Miromanov is to create a spot for Pospisil when he’s ready. But as noted by Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, Pospisil hasn’t skated with the main group yet, so he’s probably still a little ways away.

And that means the Flames have some flexibility, at least right now, to potentially give some Wranglers players NHL looks.

It seems pretty likely that Miromanov will be headed to the AHL quite soon. He’s played just once this season and given his struggles over the past year or so, he’s only going to get back into gear by playing… and the AHL is the best spot for that, if that’s the goal. (Steinberg noted on Flames Talk on Monday that getting Miromanov going was the goal of waiving him.)

We’ll see how the Flames roster changes over the next little while as the navigate their newfound wiggle room.

The Flames are back in action on Wednesday when they host the Montreal Canadiens.