Calgary Flames activate Jakob Pelletier from injury reserve, assign to AHL’s Wranglers

There’s a bit more roster news for the Calgary Flames on a Monday off-day. The club has activated Jakob Pelletier from the injury reserve list and assigned him to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers. Since Pelletier doesn’t require waivers, he can be outrighted to the AHL without any additional steps.

All-but cemented on the Flames’ roster to begin the season, Pelletier was injured on a hit from Seattle’s Marian Studenic during a Sept. 25 pre-season game at the Saddledome. He went under the knife for shoulder surgery as a result of that injury and has been recuperating ever since.

The Flames’ first-round selection from 2019, Pelletier was a really good junior player and emerged as a really good AHLer with the Stockton Heat and Calgary Wranglers. He looked pretty effective last season, with seven points in 24 NHL games in limited duty.

Pelletier carried a $406,000 cap hit while on what’s known as the “season-opening injury reserve” – his cap hit was pro-rated based on how much time he spent in the NHL last season – but that’s cleared off the books now with his activation and assignment to the AHL.

The Flames now have a cap hit of $82.488 million, so they’re $955,000 below their accruable cap space limit. They’re technically still in long-term injury reserve, with Oliver Kylington and Kevin Rooney on LTIR, so they’re not getting as much cap savings as they could be, but it’s a big step towards the club being fully healthy and gaining a lot of roster and salary cap flexibility.