The Calgary Flames have added to their depth. The club has signed forward Brett Ritchie to a one year, two way deal with a cap hit of $700,000 at the NHL level. He’s also been placed on waivers for the purposes of sending him to the taxi squad or AHL camp.
Calgary Flames announce winger Brett Ritchie has signed a one year, two-way contract @ $700,000.
The winger had been skating with the Flames’ non-NHLers at camp the past two weeks.
He’d have to clear waivers to get assigned to taxi squad or AGL.
— Salim Nadim Valji (@salimvalji) January 17, 2021
Let’s count the boxes that Ritchie ticks off for the Flames, shall we?
- He’s big, listed at 6’4″ and 220 pounds.
- He’s from a hockey family, as little brother Nick plays for Boston.
- He plays a physical style.
- He has NHL experience, with 268 games under his belt between Dallas and Boston.
- He’s a right shot forward.
And finally, he was willing to sign a two-way deal for league minimum. An Ontario product, Ritchie had to trek across the country and quarantine for a week for his PTO to attend Flames camp. You don’t go through all of that unless you’re pretty sure you’re getting a contract out of it.
He seems destined to be a taxi squad body, which perhaps means he bumps one of the two non-Derek Ryan forwards (Zac Rinaldo and Buddy Robinson) off that squad.
The Flames are back in action on Monday when they host the Vancouver Canucks (again).