Calgary Flames Game Day: A prospects Battle of Alberta in Penticton! (8:30pm MT)

Yes, it’s mid-September. And yes, it’s “just” each team’s prospect camp bunch involved. But we get the first Saturday night Battle of Alberta of the 2023-24 hockey year in Penticton, as the Calgary Flames attempt to shake off a Friday night loss against the Edmonton Oilers, who are coming off a Friday night win.

The puck drops shortly after 8:30 p.m. MT and you can catch the action streamed live on the Flames’ website (and their various social media channels) and hear the action on Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Via our pal Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet, projected lines:

Parker Bell – Rory Kerins – Matt Coronato
Samuel Honzek – Jaden Lipinski – Adam Klapka
Lucas Ciona – Nathan Pilling – William Stromgren
Oliver Tulk – Ilya Nikolaev – Mark Duarte

Yan Kuznetsov – Etienne Morin
Jarrod Gourley – Mikael Diotte
Quinn Mantei – Donovan McCoy

Connor Murphy is slated to start in net, backed up by Jari Kykkanen. Everyone who was a healthy scratch on Friday rotates in on Saturday by the sound of it. (The changes from Friday night: the goalies rotate; Mantei, McCoy and Tulk in, replacing Cote, Galloway and Peer.)

Player to watch: Yan Kuznetsov. With Jeremie Poirier not participating in the tournament as he’s recovering from off-season surgery, Kuznetsov is the lone member of the Calgary Wranglers’ blueline playing for the Flames at this event. On Friday against the Canucks, Kuznetsov was solid in his own end but failed to really translate that into pep in the offensive zone. Given how inexperienced Calgary’s defensive pairs are, it would be beneficial for the Flames to see Kuznetsov grab hold of one of these games and really impose himself on it.

Here’s how the Oilers lined up on Friday against the Jets:

Carter Savoie – Carl Berglund – Xavier Bourgault
Matvey Petrov – Jayden Grubbe – Tyler Tullio
Brady Stonehouse – Ture Linden – Jake Chiasson
Cameron Wright – Jake Sloan – Ethan De Jong

Xavier Bernard – Max Wanner
Jake Johnson – Beau Akey
Noah Ganske – Nate Misskey

Nathan Day started for the Oilers in goal on Friday, so presumably we see Zachary Bowen or Joey Rocha on Saturday. The Oilers are carrying four players who didn’t dress on Saturday: blueliners Josh Van Mulligen and Jake Johnson, and forwards Antonin Verreault and Preston Lounsbury. We’ll see what changes they make from Friday’s lineup.

Players to watch: A pair of Oilers really impressed against Winnipeg. One was forward Jake Sloan, who scored twice and looked quite dangerous in the offensive zone. The other was 2023 second-round pick Beau Akey, a very smooth puck-moving defender that looked really poised and effective against the Jets.