The Calgary Flames re-sign three players

What’s next for Kerins, Poirier, and Kuznetsov?

These deals look a little different for each player. For Kerins, this is a show-me deal. The Flames will give him a shot to earn a role in the NHL as the team’s fourth line centre. If he can earn that role, this could turn into a bigger deal next year, while if he doesn’t, this may be the end of the road for the former Soo Greyhound with the Flames.

There is a lot of potential with Kerins. The former sixth-round pick put up nearly a point per game in the AHL last season and looked serviceable in his time in the big league. If he can take one more step, he could be another excellent late-round find by this organization’s scouting team.

Poirier, meanwhile, has shown flashes of offensive excellence in his time with the Wranglers, but a nasty laceration kept him out of the lineup for much of the 2023–24 season. This past year was good, not great, and he will need to push for an NHL role this season if he wants to remain in the NHL pipeline.

The Flames have a lot of players pushing for spots on the blueline, and it seems like Poirier has fallen down the depth chart. Once one of the Flames’ top defensive prospects, this needs to be a huge year from the former Saint John Sea Dog.

Kuznetsov has been a tweener of late- seemingly too good for the AHL but not quite ready for real NHL minutes. Drafted for his defensive prowess, the former UConn Husky played his first NHL game this season but didn’t make enough of an impact to stick around long-term.

He does have more runway than the other two, being signed for two years, but the same point applies: he needs to show he’s more than an AHL body if he wants to remain with the organization long-term. There is more belief in him than in the other two, but he has to prove them right.

All three are heading into the biggest training camp of their lives and need to prove that they can be NHLers this season.