Three former Calgary Flames named to Team Canada for 2022 Olympics

Hockey Canada has named three former Calgary Flames players to its roster for the men’s hockey tournament at next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Defenceman @Tyler Wotherspoon and centres @Corban Knight and @Ben Street all spent time in a Flames jersey during the 2010s but no longer play in the National Hockey League.

With the NHL electing not to participate in the Beijing Olympics, the door opened for those three (plus a whole host of other non-NHL players) to represent Canada at the games.

Wotherspoon, 28, played 36 games with the Flames between the 2013–14 and 2016–17 seasons. Six of Wotherspoon’s appearances came during Calgary’s run to the second round of the playoffs in 2015.

The 2011 second-round pick scored five assists in 30 regular-season contests with the Flames before leaving the organization as an unrestricted free agent in 2018. Wotherspoon has one goal and 10 points in 28 American Hockey League games with the Utica Comets this season.

Knight, 31, is a former Okotoks Oiler who became a Flame in 2013 after his draft rights were traded to Calgary by the Florida Panthers. After leaving the University of North Dakota the same year, Knight spent parts of two seasons in the Flames organization.

In nine total games with the Flames, Knight scored one goal (not including his shootout winner against a bizarrely-clad Tim Thomas and the Dallas Stars in March 2014).

In January 2015, the Flames traded Knight back to the Panthers in exchange for Drew Shore. Knight bounced around between the AHL and NHL in the Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers organizations before leaving for the KHL in 2019. He won the Gagarin Cup with Avangard Omsk in 2020 while playing under Bob Hartley, his former Flames coach.

Street, 34, became a member of the Flames organization way back in 2012, signing a two-year deal with the team after two impressive seasons playing on an AHL deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Primarily a reliable AHL centre with the Abbotsford Heat during his tenure, Street played 19 games with the Flames over parts of two seasons in the organization and recorded two assists. He went on to appear in 40 more NHL games with the Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks, and New Jersey Devils before leaving for the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2021.

In addition to Wotherspoon, Knight, and Street, Canada’s 2022 Olympic roster features a few indirect Flames connections.

36-year-old forward @Adam Cracknell was a ninth-round draft selection of the Flames in 2004 but never played with the team; 29-year-old defenceman @Brandon Gormley became a Phoenix Coyote in 2011 with the first-round draft selection Calgary dealt to the ‘Yotes for Olli Jokinen.

Also on Tuesday, the IIHF released Team Germany’s roster for the 2022 Olympics. Former Flames forwards @Tobias Rieder and @David Wolf have been selected to represent their home country at the games.

The men’s ice hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics will take place between Feb. 9 and 20.

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