Selecting call-ups to fill out the Flames playoff roster

A couple days ago, we poked around with the Calgary Flames’ existing roster to try to maximize and optimize the personnel they have around. The second part of playoff roster construction is back-filling with extra bodies from the farm system to optimize flexibility and depth.

The NHL has stated that teams will be limited to 50 personnel, players included, within the hub cities. While they haven’t nailed down the roster limit yet, Flames general manager Brad Treliving estimated on a recent conference call that it would be “around 30 players.”

Given the short camp and the rapid play-in round, Treliving also hinted that the players they were familiar with from past call-ups would be the players that would get onto the expanded post-season roster.

Call-ups this season to Calgary from Stockton included:

Now, Czarnik gets an asterisk because he wasn’t an actual call-up. He was sent to the farm on Dec. 19 and never brought back up. Heck, the Flames called up Robinson, Gawdin and Phillips instead of Czarnik after his demotion. He has experience, but he’s probably not high on the call list.

As outlined earlier, here’s the current roster:

Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic – Derek Ryan – Dillon Dube
Sam Bennett – Mark Jankowski – Tobias Rieder (or Zac Rinaldo)

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Erik Gustafsson – Rasmus Andersson

David Rittich
Cam Talbot

Extras: Zac Rinaldo (or Tobias Rieder), Derek Forbort, Oliver Kylington, Michael Stone and Juuso Valimaki

The roster has five right shot players, total: Lindholm, Ryan, Hamonic, Andersson and Stone.

The Flames have about 25 players already, so we’re looking at around five extras to bring along.

First thing’s first: if the Flames want another defenseman up, it’ll be Alexander Yelesin. He’s a right shot and he’s the only defender on the farm that was called up this season.

In goal, Jon Gillies is a pending free agent, but he’s also the only guy in their system with any NHL games under his belt. It’d be a bit unfair to throw Artyom Zagidulin into the proverbial fire.

Up front, the Flames have a bunch of options. Glenn Gawdin and Matthew Phillips are slam-dunks, and add a pair of right shot forwards. Alan Quine was superb for Stockton and gives them an experienced left shot forward. If the roster expands beyond 30, then we could someone like Buddy Robinson (he’s big and shoots right) or a wildcard like Jakob Pelletier getting the call.