Flames Recall Many On Emergency Basis

A bit of news dropped today as the Calgary Flames basked in the afterglow of clinching a playoff spot and prepared for the Winnipeg Jets.

They’ve called up four players from Adirondack on an emergency basis: defensemen John Ramage and Brett Kulak, and forwards David Wolf and Emile Poirier.

Under the terms of the CBA, emergency recalls can only be made if a team falls below 2 goalies, 6 defensemen and/or 12 forwards by reasons of injury or illness. Note that nobody’s been placed on the injured reserve, so these injuries likely are short-term.

And a probable consequence of playing the Flames’ playing style of facing many shots and trying to block a bunch of them.

So what does this mean in terms of line-ups versus the Jets?

In terms of who plays, by virtue of the CBA regulations, this means that we’ll see Sam Bennett, John Ramage and Brett Kulak make their NHL debuts, while Tyler Wotherspoon, Drew Shore, David Wolf and Emile Poirier slot back into the big-league line-up for the first time in awhile. I don’t think goalies will be impacted, though you may see Joni Ortio start.

In terms of logistics, Brett Kulak is a lefty and John Ramage is a righty, while Tyler Wotherspoon is also a left-hander for the blueline. That means I’d venture to guess that Dennis Wideman (righty), T.J. Brodie (lefty) and Kris Russell (lefty) sit. Wotherspoon and Ramage were a pairing on the farm, so that works nicely.

Up-front, Shore is a right-hander, while Bennett, Wolf and Poirier are all left-handers. Shore and Bennett are also listed as centers. I would guess that Jiri Hudler, Sean Monahan, Matt Stajan, and David Jones sit out, but that’s entirely guesswork. (Bennett for Monahan, Poirier for Hudler, Wolf for Stajan and Shore for Jones is my thought process.)

I’m far more confident on my guess-work on the blueline than with the forward group, but the entire notion is that the Flames had a bunch of guys playing through injuries so the team could make the playoffs, and now they get to rest while seven kids get a chance to play.

For the curious, Bennett wears #63, Kulak wears #61 and Ramage wears his dad’s old #55. If I’m not mistaken, John and Rob Ramage will be the second father-son combination in Flames history, following in the footsteps of Paul and Max Reinhart. And because of these transactions, there are presently 13 Flames picks on the roster (Ortio, Kulak, Ramage, Wotherspoon, Brodie, Bouma, Ferland, Granlund, Poirier, Backlund, Monahan, Gaudreau and Bennett).