Report: Flames won’t be signing Milos Roman

It’s a bit confusing, as the National Hockey League has bumped one prospect signing-related deadline, but reportedly the June 1 deadline for retaining draft rights is still in effect. According to a report from TSN 1040’s Rick Dhaliwal, the Calgary Flames won’t be signing prospect Milos Roman.

Roman, 20, was a fourth round pick of the Flames in the 2018 NHL Draft – they traded their 2019 fourth rounder to Montreal to grab him. A product of Slovakia who played with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, he had solid performances stats-wise in both his draft year (32 points in 39 games) and his post-draft year (60 points in 59 games), but failed to really turn the corner and become a dominant two-way player as an overager. He had 47 points in 60 games this past season.

As a forward, Roman was in a bit of a tough spot organizationally. In Stockton, the Flames will have a lot of first or second year pros that need ice time to develop including (deep breath) Dmitry Zavgorodniy, Emilio Pettersen, Adam Ruzicka, Eetu Tuulola, Martin Pospisil and Luke Philp. The club utilized a mixture of AHL veterans and youngsters in 2019-20 and the approach turned out really nicely from a standings and developmental perspective, which suggests that it’ll probably continue. But with so many spots already accounted for, fitting Roman into the developmental mix for the Heat would’ve been challenging.

Unless the date is moved, the Flames also have until 3 p.m. MT on Monday to sign 2016 pick Linus Lindstrom. He’s under contract with Skelleftea AIK for 2020-21.