In advance of their six game homestand, the Calgary Flames has made a roster move. The club announced on Sunday afternoon that they’ve re-assigned defender Nick DeSimone to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

DeSimone played eight games, posting four assists. But he’s been a healthy scratch for the past three games and moving him back to the AHL keeps DeSimone’s waiver clock from progressing any further. He’s played eight games (after 10 games a player requires waivers) and been on the NHL roster for 22 days (after 30 games a player requires waivers). If he’s not necessarily going to be playing for the Flames, they might as well keep his waiver clock frozen.

Moving DeSimone to the AHL drops the active roster to 21 players – they’re carrying one extra forward. But they’re playing at home for the next two weeks. The Wranglers are mostly out of town between now and Christmas, but they don’t play another game until they head to Henderson (a Vegas suburb) at the end of the week, so they might as well stash DeSimone and freeze his waiver clock for the time-being.

Following this move, the Flames have two extra roster spots and $2.287 million in salary cap space under their long-term injury relief ceiling. They have a lot of roster flexibility, if they need to use it.

(Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article completely whiffed on the Wranglers’ schedule between now and Christmas. They’re playing all but two games on the road, not at home, but they’re largely doing short trips until a road trip through Northern California and Colorado over the nine days just before the holiday break.)