Flames Call Kylington, Sieloff, Elson

Big news surrounding a (mostly) meaningless game tomorrow in Minnesota, Flames fans are going to get their first look at some new players, and their first look at one of the highly-touted defensemen drafted in 2015. 

Turner Elson, the former captain of the Red Deer Rebels, was signed as an undrafted free agent in September of 2011 and has become a favourite of the coaching staff in Stockton. Elson has been used as a utility-player of sorts, playing on both wings and at centre. Elson has consistently produced offensively as well, putting up basically identical seasons this year and last year (59 pts over his past 108 games). The hallmark of his game is energy, so he will likely be used in a bottom-six role tomorrow. Turner Elson is 23 years old and a restricted free agent at the end of this season.

Calling up Pat Sieloff is rather surprising for me. After a disastrous first professional seasons, rife with injury, Sieloff had struggled to get regular ice time this season in Stockton. Sieloff was the reward for trading down in the infamous 2012 Entry Draft and came highly lauded by many scouts. 

Sieloff hasn’t really put it together at the AHL level yet but has put up a career high 11 points this season. Importantly, Sieloff has one more year after this season before he heads to restricted free agency. It will certainly be interesting to see if Sieloff can use this call up as motivation heading into next season but with so many defenders in the system, you can’t help but wonder if this might be his one shot at NHL time.

The one everyone is (rightly) excited about is Oliver Kylington. After trading up to snag him in the second round, the Flames brought the dynamic Swedish defender over to North America before this season. By all accounts, Kylington has had a good year despite missing a fairly large chunk of the season with a concussion. In the games I’ve seen this season, Kylington’s skating was absolutely fantastic and he was starting to become more comfortable with the puck right before he went down with the concussion.

There’s a lot to be excited about with Kylington and I think most Flames fans are enormously excited to see him, even if it is just for one game. He has 11 points this season (the same total as Sieloff) and in recent games has been getting a great deal more ice time, as some of Stockton’s regular defenders were up with the big club. Oh. and he’s still only 18 years old. That’s not a bad year all-around for Kylington. Here’s a look at his SHL highlights from  2013/14.