Flames Waive Byron and Raymond, Demote Granlund to AHL

The Flames have made a collection of moves this morning designed to get them down to the required 23-man roster. Actually, the waiving of Raymond and Byron goes a bit further than that, making these moves a little more interesting than your standard waiver day deadline stuff. 

What this means first and foremost is that the Flames will start the season with 3 goalies on the roster. With Smid, Brodie and Colborne on IR and Granlund moved to Stockton, Calgary can go with 6 defenders, 14 forwards and 3 goaltenders to begin with. 

Why waive Byron and Raymond then? It gives the Flames flexibility to re-assign one or both of them to the AHL within the next 30-days without having to go through waivers again. Exposing them to waivers today reduces the chances of losing them to someone else since the waiver wire is crowded with extra bodies. 

So if Colborne, Smid or Brodie get healthy in October, Calgary can demote Raymond or Byron as needed while keeping them around in the interim. I don’t personally agree with Byron being considered expendable in this way, but it’s a savvy use of the waiver rules by the team’s decision makers nonetheless. If demoted, either guy can be recalled to the parent team without going through waivers. 

Which means, Treliving is essentially stashing forward depth for the next month, giving the team a little bit more time to figure out the goalie situation even if some of the IR guys get healthy. The goalie situation is untenable, but this is an interesting work around to give the club more time to figure out a trade or waive scenario that makes sense.