It’s always a good day when a player clears waivers.
On Thursday afternoon, it was reported by The Athletic’s Chris Johnston that Calgary Flames winger Walker Duehr has cleared waivers. Shortly afterwards, the Flames announced that they’ve assigned Duehr to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.
The 26-year-old has played 19 games with the Flames this season and has a goal and four points in those games. His career-best season was in 2022-23, where he had seven goals and 11 points in 27 games.
Duehr has been on the Flames main roster for the entire season and has yet to play for the Calgary Wranglers in the American Hockey League. However, he scored 15 goals and 26 points in 41 games with the Flames’ affiliate in 2022-23, as well as 11 goals and 23 points in 59 games the season prior.
The Sioux Falls, South Dakota-native played his junior career in the United States Hockey League between 2014 and 2017, playing for the Sioux City Musketeers, Tri-City Storm, Chicago Steel, and the Bloomington Thunder. He spent his collegiate career with Minnesota State University, Mankato where he scored 25 goals and 51 points in 102 games.
Duehr was signed to an NHL contract in mid-April of 2021 by the Flames and is the first player from the state of South Dakota to both sign an NHL contract as well as play in the NHL, per this Dakota News Now article from the same time period which he signed.
Duehr has only played in 43.2% of Flames games this season. With the demotion to the AHL, Duehr will get the opportunity to play in every game and improve as a player.
Time will tell if the right-winger will get another opportunity with the Flames in the 2023-24 season, but it’s a good thing he’s still in the organization.
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