In a few short weeks, the Calgary Flames’ prospects will arrive in town for their annual training camp – a precursor to “main” training camp, which begins a week later. As a centrepiece for that week, the Flames announced on Wednesday morning that their prospects will be hosting the Edmonton Oilers’ prospects at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Mon., Sept. 14.

Tickets are now available on Ticketmaster for $10, with the proceeds going to the Flames Foundation.

This will likely be the only prospects game for this group, and it comes in a pretty unique year. In many prior seasons there has been three prospects games at the Young Stars tournament in Penticton, but that event was discontinued last year. And this season begins the new collective bargaining agreement which sees the pre-season cut from eight games to four games, with veteran players capped at just two games apiece. For the first time ever, the Wranglers will be playing a pair of AHL pre-season games against the Abbotsford Canucks, though.

So if you’re a player at prospects camp that wants to make an impression… well, this game against the Oilers’ kids may be your best – and perhaps only – chance to do so. Impress, and you might get into an NHL pre-season game or two. If you don’t impress, though, you may be headed to Wranglers camp (or back to major junior) instead.

We won’t get full roster information for the Flames until prospect camp opens around Sept. 10 or 11, but the press release announcing the game name-dropped Matvei Gridin, Arsenii Sergeev, Tyson Gross, Abram Wiebe and Axel Hurtig. You won’t see anybody with European or college commitments at the camp, but you can reasonably expect to see Flames prospects entering their first or second year of pro, along with unsigned draft choices playing in Canadian junior and a few try-out players to help balance things out.

In other words: it’s a prime opportunity for some young players to make some noise before perhaps some college prospects start arriving in the professional ranks next year.

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