In advance of Thursday’s game in Boston, the Calgary Flames made a pair of injury-related roster moves. The club placed forward Anthony Mantha on the injury reserve list and, in a paired move, filled his roster spot by calling up forward Dryden Hunt from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

The 30-year-old Mantha is in his first year with the Flames organization after signing as a free agent. He left Tuesday’s game in Montreal after a collision with Emil Heineman in the offensive zone that resulted in a lower body injury. Through 13 games this season, Mantha had four goals and three assists for seven points. Based on his IR placement, he won’t be available to the Flames until (at least) Nov. 13 – the Flames have yet to share any information about the severity or expected length of Mantha’s absence.

The 28-year-old Hunt is in his third year with the Flames organization after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2023 trade deadline and then re-signing with the club. He began the season with the Wranglers, playing on their top line with Jakob Pelletier and Dryden Hunt. He’s performed well, posting two goals and eight assists for 10 points over 12 games. He’s played 230 NHL games in his career, including 28 with the Flames last season.

So here’s the deal with the recall: the Flames already have 12 healthy forwards, and Hunt becomes their 13th. At his age, he’s basically a known quantity and his development is essentially done. If he plays, great. If he sits, great. The other wing options available – the likes of Pelletier, Adam Klapka, Sam Honzek and others – are all young and still developing, and so they’re better off playing rather than potentially sitting idle as NHL extras.

Hunt cleared waivers before the season and has 30 days exempt on the NHL roster (or 10 games played) before he requires waivers again, and we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of the Flames possibly swapping him back to the AHL in favour or a younger player if the need arises. But for the time being, with the Flames having a sufficient compliment of NHL forwards on their roster, Hunt’s a great player to have available to the big club should they need to use him.

The Flames visit the Boston Bruins on Thursday night before completing their road trip in Buffalo on Saturday afternoon.