Flames recall forward Dryden Hunt from the AHL’s Wranglers, return Clark Bishop to the AHL

In advance of Thursday’s clash between the Calgary Flames and the Colorado Avalanche, the locals have made a pair of roster moves. On Thursday, the club announced that they’ve recalled forward Dryden Hunt from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers. In a coinciding move, they’ve reassigned forward Clark Bishop back to the Wranglers.

The 29-year-old Hunt is a left shot forward that can play either wing. He joined the Flames organization via trade at the 2023 trade deadline and has carved out a nice niche for myself as a really versatile utility forward. For the AHL team, he’s posted 40 points over 41 games and become a rock for their top six group. For the NHL club, he’s someone that can be called up and thrown into the lineup on short notice and still provide reliable minutes. This is Hunt’s second call-up of the season.

He’s seemingly become a favourite of Flames head coach Ryan Huska over the past couple seasons because he can be placed with anyone and provide value; he’s more of a stop-gap the higher up in the lineup he goes, but he’s never bad. Hunt has played 230 NHL games for Florida, Arizona, the NY Rangers, Colorado, Toronto and the Flames. Last season he had eight points over 23 NHL games with Calgary.

The captain of the Wranglers, the 28-year-old Bishop heads back to the farm after suiting up for six games, all on the fourth line, and scoring a goal. Bishop didn’t look a bit out of place with the Flames, but he didn’t stand out either, and unfortunately he’s fallen out of the fourth line rotation a bit as Adam Klapka and Kevin Rooney are seemingly ahead of him on the depth chart. For a useful depth player that requires waivers after 30 days on the NHL roster, it probably makes more sense to send Bishop back to the Wranglers so he can play and contribute rather than letting his waiver clock run in the NHL in the press box.

With these moves, the Flames continue to have a full 23-man roster: two goaltenders, eight defencemen and 13 forwards. They also have four players on the injury reserve list: Anthony Mantha, Justin Kirkland, Kevin Bahl and Connor Zary.

The Flames host Colorado on Thursday at the Saddledome.