Lines coming together! (and other notes from the first three days of camp)

The first three days of Calgary Flames training camp are in the books and the pre-season portion of their camp is about to begin! Here’s a quick rundown of the news-worthy kernels that have popped up during the first few days.

Via our pal Pat Steinberg, here’s how lines for the main NHL group have looked:

Matthew Tkachuk – Elias Lindholm – Blake Coleman
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Andrew Mangiapane
Dillon Dube – Mikael Backlund – Tyler Pitlick
Milan Lucic – Brad Richardson – Trevor Lewis
Brett Ritchie

Noah Hanifin – Chris Tanev (or Rasmus Andersson)
Nikita Zadorov – Rasmus Andersson (or Chris Tanev)
Juuso Valimaki – Erik Gudbranson
Oliver Kylington – Michael Stone

Jacob Markstrom
Daniel Vladar

Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov swapped spots after the first couple days: Hanifin was initially with Andersson, then Tanev.

Adam Werner was with the main group initially, but was moved to the minor league group after the first day.

The two “big” news bites were about two players coming back from off-season surgeries: Noah Hanifin and Sean Monahan. Both have been full participants in on-ice sessions, but Sutter noted specifically regarding Hanifin that he’s working to get his conditioning fully back and so he likely wouldn’t be into the rotation until the last few pre-season games. (Presumably it’s a similar situation for Sean Monahan.) The goal, obviously, is to have them fully up to speed in time for the season-opener on Oct. 16.

In terms of roster size and cut-downs, Sutter noted that after the initial three practice days there are three pre-season games in four nights – hosting Edmonton on Sunday, visiting Vancouver in Abbotsford on Monday, and then hosting Seattle on Wednesday – and then starting Friday a run of five games in nine nights. He expects to have the roster down to around 30 players for the final pre-season run.

Speaking about young players that could push for roster spots, Sutter indicated that he thought three centres, three wingers and four defensemen (including the young defensemen on their team) could have a chance. He noted that the right side of their defense is in place, “those four guys.” (He also noted that during the season, he thinks the club will need to use 15 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies.)

Based on the way the pre-season schedule is set up, the first three games are to try out players for auditions, and then things transition pretty quickly into getting the full NHL group game-ready. The Flames don’t play until Oct. 16, five days into the season, so they’ll have additional practice lead time before the puck drops.