In a sign of just how weird and wacky 2020 has been, the only Calgary Flames affiliated hockey club that will play part of their 2020-21 regular season in 2020 is their ECHL affiliate, the Kansas City Mavericks.
The Mavericks begin their season tonight in Indianapolis and have announced their opening roster.

The 2020-21 Mavericks, sorta…

Player
Pos
Age
2019-20 Club(s)
Justin Kapelmaster
G
25
Robert Morris University (NCAA)
Andrew Shortridge
G
25
San Jose (AHL)
Allen (ECHL)
Luke Bafia
D
24
Western Michigan University (NCAA)
Cole Candella
D
22
Odense (Denmark)
Willie Corrin
D
29
HKM Zvolen (Slovakia)
Marcus Crawford
D
23
Toledo (ECHL)
Orlando (ECHL)
Kansas City (ECHL)
Anthony Florentino
D
25
Worcester (ECHL)
Tommy Muck
D
24
Bemidji State University (NCAA)
Zach Osburn
D
23
Stockton (AHL)
Kansas City (ECHL)
Justin Woods
D
26
Laval (AHL)
Kansas City (ECHL)
Noah Delmas
RW
24
Niagara University (NCAA)
CJ Eick
LW
28
Kansas City (ECHL)
Giorgio Estephan
C
23
Toronto (AHL)
Newfoundland (ECHL)
Austin Farley
LW
27
Lulea HF (SHL)
Kalamazoo (ECHL)
Dylan Malmquist
LW
24
Nottingham (EIHL)
Phil Marinaccio
C
27
Storhamar (Norway)
Frisk Asker (Norway)
Brodie Reid
RW
31
Villacher SV (EBEL)
Brendan Robbins
RW
25
Evansville (SPHL)
Lane Scheidl
LW
28
HK Nitra (Slovakia)
There’s some weirdness here, friends. First off, they have a 21 player roster limit and they’re using 19 of those spots – the roster limit drops to 20 on Jan. 10. The ECHL allows teams to dress just 18 players per game – two goalies and 16 skaters.
But the Mavericks are a bit shorthanded for the exact reason you think they are…
The Mavericks have eight players on the Commissioner’s Exempt List: goalie Taran Kozun, and forwards Rob Bordson, Anthony Collins, Robbie Holmes, Bryan Lemos, Ross Olsson, Anthony Rinaldi and Loren Ulett. Oh, and head coach Tad O’Had and assistant Kohl Schultz.
So, uh, things are going great.
It’s worth mentioning that players on the exempt list do not necessarily have COVID-19, they may have only had exposure. Either way, the Mavericks are going to be lean for a little bit.
Now, the ECHL is notoriously wacky in terms of the quality of players. So, from these two lists of players, is there anybody worth keeping an eye on? A few, actually!
  • Justin Kapelmaster was a second team conference all-star last season for Robert Morris, posting a .929 save percentage – albeit in a weak conference.
  • Taran Kozun was the WHL’s top goalie in 2014-15 and was the top goalie in Canadian university hockey in each of the past two seasons, winning the national MVP award last season.
  • Cole Candella was drafted by Vancouver in 2016, and his signing back in July quietly started the Flames’ 2020 trend of snapping up anyone who ever had anything to do with the Canucks.
  • Giorgio Estephan was drafted by Buffalo in 2015 and was teammates with Glenn Gawdin on the Swift Current team that won the WHL crown in 2018.
The Mavericks are likely going to have their season made or broken by the crop of first-year pros coming out of the NCAA – Kapelmaster, Bafin, Muck and Delmas – and WHL graduate Robbie Holmes, coming in after a strong overage season with Regina.
Will any of these players play in the NHL somebody? Well, probably not. Many won’t get much more than a cup of coffee in the AHL, and the only player on the roster right now even on an AHL deal is Andrew Shortridge. (Heck, last season they only had Tyler Parsons and Nick Schneider as NHL-affiliated prospects along with a smattering AHL signees.) But the ECHL starting up is a tiny bit of normalcy in a year that has been far from normal and how they tip-toe around the pandemic will be illustrative of the massive challenges facing the AHL and NHL in the coming weeks.