The Calgary Flames begin the on-ice portion of their 2024-25 training camp on Thursday at Winsport. The Flames have 64 players in camp and have split them into three groups to make on-ice sessions manageable.

Here’s a quick rundown of who’s in each group and how things are starting to shape up at camp.

Namesake: Former Flames head coach Terry Crisp, who guided the club to the Stanley Cup in 1989

Forwards (13): Mikael Backlund, Andrew Basha, Clark Bishop, Blake Coleman, Matt Coronato, Samuel Honzek, Dryden Hunt, Nazem Kadri, Adam Klapka, Andrei Kuzmenko, Cole Schwindt, Yegor Sharangovich and Connor Zary

Defencemen (8): Tyson Barrie, Hunter Brzustewicz, Artem Grushnikov, Joel Hanley, Yan Kuznetsov, Daniil Miromanov, Jarred Tinordi and MacKenzie Weegar

Goalies (2): Waltteri Ignatjew and Dustin Wolf

This group has a fun mix. There’s veteran stars like Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and MacKenzie Weegar. There’s first-round picks like Matt Coronato, Samuel Honzek and Connor Zary. There’s PTO blueliner Tyson Barrie. There’s hometown draft pick Andrew Basha. And there’s goalie of the future (or perhaps the present?) Dustin Wolf.

We’re making educated guesses for each group based on what we’ve heard in interviews with Ryan Huska and what we saw in Penticton:

Namesake: Al MacNeil, the team’s first head coach in Calgary, and a longtime fixture in the Flames’ coaching staff and management group since 1979.

Forwards (13): Lucas Ciona, Walker Duehr, Martin Frk, Matvei Gridin, Jonathan Huberdeau, Justin Kirkland, Ryan Lomberg, Anthony Mantha, Sam Morton, Jakob Pelletier, Martin Pospisil, Kevin Rooney and William Strömgren

Defencemen (8): Rasmus Andersson, Jonathan Aspirot, Kevin Bahl, Jake Bean, Brayden Pachal, Zayne Parekh, Jeremie Poirier and Ilya Solovyov

Goalies (2): Devin Cooley and Dan Vladar

This group is sort of a mirror image of Team Crisp. There’s veterans like Jonathan Huberdeau and Rasmus Andersson. There’s first-round picks like Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin and Jakob Pelletier. There’s Sam Morton and William Strömgren, fresh off being the two best Flames forwards in Penticton. And in net there’s new guy Devin Cooley and Dan Vladar, finally without hip pain.

Namesake: The late, great “Badger” Bob Johnson, who coached the Flames for five seasons (1982-87) and led them to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance.

Forwards (11): Jacob Battaglia, Parker Bell, Alex Gallant, Trevor Janicke, Rory Kerins, Hunter Laing, Jaden Lipinski, Luke McNamara, Luke Misa, Ilya Nikolaev and David Silye

Defencemen (5): Axel Hurtig, Eric Jamieson, Joni Jurmo, Henry Mews and Etienne Morin

Goalies (2): Connor Murphy and Matt Radomsky

So, it’s probably not unfair to say that Team Johnson is less good than the other two. There are zero players with NHL experience here. Heck, there are just five players with NHL deals in this group: Bell, Kerins, Nikolaev, Jurmo and Morin. This is a group of players with some upside and potential, for sure – I’m bullish on Misa, Battaglia and Lipinski – but this group is also where the majority of the early cuts are going to be coming from as its members get sent back to their junior teams early next week.

Remember, though: training camp groups are subject to change, especially once pre-season games get going and management and the coaching staff start to mix and match a bit. Things will start to become a bit of a jumble pretty quickly.

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