The Flames make first cuts: roster down to 60

The Calgary Flames have made their first roster moves of the 2016-17 training camp. They announced via press release the trimming of their camp roster by five, and none of the names are particularly shocking.

The team has assigned Aaron Hyman to the Calgary Hitmen, Matthew Phillips to the Victoria Royals, Nick Schneider to the Medicine Hat Tigers and Brayden Burke to the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Dennis Kravchenko has also been axed, but has accepted an invite to the Stockton Heat training camp that opens next week.

The moves put their camp roster down to 60: 6 goalies, 20 defensemen and 34 forwards.

Hyman and Burke were amateur try-out players that the team took a look at for the sake of prospect camp. It’s a bit surprising that Burke wasn’t signed, but you could also argue that maybe the team felt his skillset was a bit too close to Phillips, Mangiapane or Gaudreau’s, and how many smaller skilled forwards do you need? (Answer: if they’re good, you could use many…)

Phillips was Calgary’s sixth rounder in this past year’s draft, and he rejoins a really good Royals club. Schneider returns to a Medicine Hat club where he’s the undisputed top goalie. Kravchenko gets a potential spot in Stockton if he shows well.

And ultimately, the assignments get the Flames down to more manageable numbers in camp by trimming out some bodies that were not going to play in the NHL this season. Expect to see more cuts following Tuesday’s pre-season game in Winnipeg.

Training camp continues tomorrow with morning practices followed by preseason split squad games in Calgary and Edmonton.