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The Flames opening roster all-but-set: Alex Nylander clears waivers and assigned to AHL, nobody new on waivers

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

By Ryan Pike

Sep 27, 2026, 15:20 EDTUpdated: Sep 27, 2026, 15:06 EDT

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Friends, it sure does seem like we know what the Calgary Flames’ opening 23-man roster for the 2026-27 regular season will look like.

On Sunday, forward Alex Nylander cleared waivers and was assigned to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers by the Flames. Via QR Calgary’s Pat Steinberg, the Flames didn’t place anybody else on the waiver wire, which they would need to do to send someone down before Monday’s roster deadline.

With that, there are now 25 players on the Flames’ training camp roster, and the pathway to having an opening roster by 3 p.m. MT on Monday seems pretty clear.

Here’s the remaining camp roster following Nylander’s AHL assignment:

Goaltenders Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley
Defencemen Kevin Bahl, Simon Nemec, Jake Middleton, Zayne Parekh, Yan Kuznetsov, Zach Whitecloud, Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal
Forwards Matvei Gridin, Morgan Frost, Matt Coronato, Sam Honzek, Mikael Backlund, Joel Farabee, Connor Zary, Ryan Strome, Yegor Sharangovich, Maxim Tsyplakov, Martin Pospisil, Adam Klapka, Brennan Othmann, Aydar Suniev and Jonathan Huberdeau

A few notes: First, everybody requires waivers on the current roster except for Parekh, Gridin, Honzek and Suniev. Second, since Parekh, Gridin and Honzek are in regular spots in the lineup, we strongly suspect they won’t be sent to the AHL anytime soon. Third, Huberdeau was not ever activated from the injury reserve list when camp opened, so he’ll be named to the IR when the season begins.

In other words, it really seems like the two moves the Flames will be making to get down to the 23-man roster limit by tomorrow afternoon are formally placing Huberdeau back on the IR and sending Suniev, who’s waiver exempt, down to the Wranglers.

This means that Othmann, who was a restricted free agent this past summer and was the last Flame to sign a new contract, will likely open the season with the big club. Give Othmann credit: he was really noticeable and effective in a fairly limited role in two pre-season games, playing fast and physical and looking like someone that could provide value if he slots into the NHL lineup as part of the fourth line mix.

The Flames will obviously need to reassess their lineup’s needs once Huberdeau is nearing a return to action, but if nothing else Othmann has earned a bit of a look-see with his camp performance. And we suspect that we have not seen the last of Suniev, who was also excellent in camp, this season.

The Flames open their regular season on Thursday night at home against the Seattle Kraken.

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