Calgary Flames recall AHL leading scorer Matthew Phillips from the Wranglers

In advance of a three games in four nights eastern road trip, the Calgary Flames have made a roster move. The club has recalled American Hockey League leading scorer Matthew Phillips from the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.

Phillips, 24, has 15 goals and 15 assists in 20 AHL games this season, leading that circuit. The right shot forward can play wing or centre. He’s smallish, listed at 5’8″ and 160 pounds by the AHL, but he can flat-out score. Or at least he has at the WHL and AHL levels. He played one game in the NHL for the Flames, back in 2020-21 during the weird Calgary/Vancouver games that took place while the rest of the league was playing the playoffs. (He had no points in the one appearance.) He was originally a sixth-round selection of the Flames in the 2016 NHL Draft.

The Flames don’t appear to be making any subsequent moves in relation to this recall. They had an open roster spot, and Phillips fills it. They also had more than enough cap space to accommodate Phillips’ $750,000 cap hit. For now, the Flames are carrying 23 players: two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 14 forwards. They’re about to play three games in four nights with travel – in Columbus, Toronto and Montreal – so having an additional body makes a lot of sense.