Calgary Flames assign Jakob Pelletier, Walker Duehr and Dennis Gilbert to the AHL’s Wranglers

The Calgary Flames got off the plane early Saturday morning after flying home from Seattle, and promptly made a trio of moves before heading into their extended All-Star Break. Heading to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers are forwards Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr, and defenceman Dennis Gilbert.

The move is, at its core, all about cap and roster flexibility. The Flames aren’t allowed to practice until the day after the All-Star Game – next Sunday – and so there’s no reason to really have waiver exempt players counting against the salary cap if they can save that space. So down these players go, to potentially play some games while the Flames are idle.

The combined cap hits of the three players headed to the farm is $2.5 million, and stashing them in the AHL for eight days gives the Flames an additional $476,000 in cap space they can use at the trade deadline because of the eight days of savings getting pro-rated.

Pelletier has zero points in four NHL games this season, Duehr has two goals in eight games, and Gilbert has one assist in nine games. All three performed well and it seems likely they’ll all be back at some point, perhaps very soon.

The Flames are now carrying a 20-man roster, the least players an NHL team is allowed to carry during the playing season: two goaltenders, six defencemen and 12 forwards. They return to game action next Monday when they head to Manhattan to face the New York Ranger.s