In the history of the Flames franchise, 606 players have tugged a red sweater over their heads and suited up for a regular season game. Of those, 22 played just a single game for either the Calgary or Atlanta Flames. We call them One Game Wonders.
Let’s talk about another One Game Wonder, Jarrod Skalde.
Skalde has had a fascinating life in hockey. An Ontario boy, he played junior for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and Belleville Bulls. He was drafted in the second round of the 1989 NHL Draft by New Jersey.
He played pro hockey for the Devils from 1990-93, playing NHL and AHL games. He was an excellent AHLer, but only a decent depth body in the bigs. He was claimed by Anaheim in expansion and remained a fringe NHL body.
The Flames acquired Skalde in a swap for Bobby Marshall, and he was an offensive leader for Saint John. His lone Flames duty was on Mar. 15, 1996 as he played bottom six minutes in a 3-1 win over Buffalo. He left the Flames as a free agent after spending the 1996-97 season in the AHL.
Skalde signed with San Jose and had an eventful 1997-98 season, getting claimed off waivers five times over two months:
  • Claimed by Chicago (Jan. 8)
  • Played 4 games for Chicago
  • Reclaimed by San Jose (Jan. 23)
  • Claimed by Dallas (Jan. 28)
  • Played 1 game for Dallas
  • Reclaimed by Chicago (Feb. 10)
  • Played 3 games for Chicago
  • Re-reclaimed by San Jose (Mar. 6)
He spent the entire next season in the minors and was excellent. He then signed with Atlanta and was excellent in the minors and pretty good in limited NHL duty. Then it was off to Philadelphia in a trade where he was (again) super in the minors but only got one NHL game in.
He went to Switzerland for a season, then spent two seasons in the AHL in Dallas and Tampa’s systems. Then he spent a season in Sweden (Leksands IF) and a season in Japan (Oji Eagles) before splitting his final year between IHL Bloomington and Austria (HK Jesenice) before retiring.
Here’s a listing of teams he played at least one regular season game for, by league:
  • NHL: New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Atlanta Thashers and Philadelphia Flyers
  • AHL: Utica Devils, San Diego Gulls, Saint John Flames, Baltimore Bandits, Kentucky Thoroughblades, Chicago Wolves, Philadelphia Phantoms, Utah Grizzlies (after IHL merger), Springfield Falcons and San Antonio Rampage
  • IHL: Cincinnati Cyclones, Las Vegas Thunder, Indianapolis Ice, Utah Grizzlies, Orlando Solar Bears and Bloomington PrairieThunder (of the second incarnation of the IHL)
  • NLA: Lausanne HC
  • SHL: Leksands IF
  • Asian League: Oji Eagles
  • EBEL: HK Jesenice
Basically, he was a cross between Mike Sillinger and Crash Davis. He kept circling the NHL, but just couldn’t find a way to land full-time.
He’s been similarly nomadic in retirement, working as a coach. So far he’s spent time with Bloomington (IHL), Cincinnati (ECHL), Norfolk (AHL), Guelph (OHL), Hockey Canada (World U18s), Pittsburgh (NHL, as development coach), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) and his son’s prep school. His son, Skate, is playing prep school hockey in the USA but was drafted by Oshawa of the OHL.