NHL experience is in abundance at Flames training camp

The Calgary Flames are in the midst of their 2026-27 training camp, friends, and they began with a lower roster number than usual, bringing 52 players on main camp initially. (They’ve since dropped the roster down to 48 individuals.) In past years, they’ve bought upwards of 65-70 to camp.

But despite a smaller group, they have a higher number of players with NHL games on their resume than is typical. The Flames have 41 players on active NHL contracts. 37 of them, all but four, have played in NHL games. (Heck, they even have an AHL signee with NHL experience.)

Here’s a rundown of who has NHL games on their CVs.

Goaltenders

The Flames have four goaltenders under contract for this season.

Kirill Zarubin, entering his first year of North American pro hockey, has zero NHL games under his belt. But second year pro Arsenii Sergeev has one, incumbent NHL backup Devin Cooley has 37, and incumbent NHL starter Dustin Wolf has 128.

Defencemen

The Flames have 16 defencemen under contract for this season.

Axel Hurtig, entering his first year of North American pro hockey, has zero NHL games under his belt. Everybody else has some NHL games.

Some have a little experience: Abram Wiebe has played 4, Jake Livingstone has played 5, Mike Benning has played 18, Hunter Brzustewicz has played 35, Zayne Parekh has played 38 and Yan Kuznetsov has played 58.

Arguably the rest of the potential blueline group has quite a bit of NHL experience: Simon Nemec has 155, Brayden Pachal has 177, Andreas Englund has 200, Kevin Bahl has 297, Joel Hanley has 314, Jake Middleton has 381 and Zach Whitecloud has 399.

Forwards

The Flames have 23 forwards under active contracts for this season – Theo Stockselius isn’t counted, as his deal will slide this season.

Andrew Basha and Jonathan Castagna, entering their first full years of North American pro hockey, both have zero NHL games under his belt. Everybody else has some NHL games.

Among those with handfuls of games: William Stromgren has 3, Sam Morton has 4, Tyson Gross has 6, Aydar Suniev has 7, Rory Kerins has 9, Sam Honzek has 23, Matvei Gridin has 37, Brennan Othmann has 44 and Ben Jones has 56.

In the moderate experience group: Adam Klapka has 116, Maxim Tsyplakov has 126, Martin Pospisil has 166, Connor Zary has 191, Matt Coronato has 192 and Dryden Hunt has 238.

In the more experienced group: Morgan Frost has 392, Yegor Sharangovich has 438 and Joel Farabee has 497.

In the very experienced group: Ryan Strome has 916, Jonathan Huberdeau has 962 and Mikael Backlund has 1,148.

(Luke Philp, on an AHL deal, also has 3 NHL games. Alex Nylander, on a professional try-out, has 126 NHL games.)

Suffice it to say, virtually every call-up option the Flames will have at their disposal during the coming season will have some NHL experience to draw upon if they get the opportunity to get into big-league games.

NHL experience, at a glance

NHL-contracted players only.