Flames call up Nick DeSimone from Wranglers, place Dennis Gilbert on injury reserve

The Calgary Flames have made a couple of injury-related roster moves. First, the club has recalled blueliner Nick DeSimone from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers. To open a roster spot for him, they have placed blueliner Dennis Gilbert on the injury reserve list.

Gilbert was called up on Dec. 18, but left Sunday’s game after getting clocked during a fight with San Jose Sharks forward Jonah Gadjovich midway through the second period. Gilbert joins Chris Tanev (injury reserve) and Oliver Kylington (non-roster) as unavailable players for the Flames.

This is DeSimone’s second call-up; he was previously on the NHL roster from Nov. 6-15 (along with Gilbert) while the Flames were missing Michael Stone and Tanev due to injuries. He has zero points in four NHL games and 15 points in 20 AHL games this season.

The Flames maintain a 23 player active roster with the swap: two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 14 forwards. In the event the club wants to activate Chris Tanev from the IR, they can do so, but (a) they have to do it by Dec. 23 and (b) they would only be able to re-assign DeSimone, Matthew Phillips or Radim Zohorna to the AHL in order to do so, since they were all called up after Dec. 11.

The Flames play the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night in the second game of a four-game road trip.