Calgary Flames send Matt Coronato to AHL’s Wranglers, recall Martin Pospisil from AHL

In advance of their weekend trip to Seattle, the Calgary Flames have made a forward swap. Headed to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers is forward Matt Coronato. Headed to the Flames from the Wranglers is forward Martin Pospisil.

Coronato was the Flames’ first-round pick in 2021. He’s good. He’s young. He’s offensively-minded. But he’s been a bit of an afterthought so far with the big club due to the other, bigger lineup issues they’ve had. As a result, he’s bounced around a bunch and been used to plug holes at times – he played centre, not his natural position, on Wednesday night likely because the Flames didn’t have anybody else that could do it.

So Coronato heads to the Wranglers, for now, a team that’s playing quite well and will be able to showcase him and allow him to get some swagger. There’s no point in Coronato being in the NHL as a healthy scratch, so Wranglers duty, even for the short-term, is probably his best bet for gaining confidence and game experience at the pro level. He’s expected to play in Friday afternoon’s game against the San Jose Barracuda.

And hey, Pospisil getting the call for the big club is a big, big deal. A fourth-round pick in 2018, Pospisil has size and the willingness to use it… but he’s had dreadful injury luck in his career thus far. But he’s managed to stay healthy this season – knock on wood – and he’s off to a great start. Maybe he’s just going to be a healthy scratch for a game or so at the NHL level, but at the very least he’s getting a nice reward for doing the work and performing well at the AHL level.

The roster swap keeps the Flames at 23 players on the active roster: two goaltenders, seven defenders and 14 forwards. One of the forwards is the injured Adam Ruzicka, and one of the defenders is Jordan Oesterle, on waivers until noon MT on Friday.