When you’re building a National Hockey League roster, it really is a numbers game.

The Calgary Flames have begun training camp with 52 players on their camp roster. They must finish with a cap compliant roster of between 20 and 23 players by 3 p.m. MT on Mon., Sept. 28.

If you go on PuckPedia and start doing the math, things are both simple and a bit complex depending on how you examine things.

In terms of salary cap: well, the Flames have oodles. If you project the Flames to start their roster with 22 active players (and one, Jonathan Huberdeau, on the injury reserve – we’ll get to that), they have $14.9 million in available cap space per PuckPedia.

But things are a little rigid in terms of roster spots, primarily because of one-way contracts, waivers, and the emergence of Sam Honzek, Yan Kuznetsov, Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh as everyday players during the 2025-26 campaign.

Teams can carry a maximum of 23 players on their active roster at any given time. Via PuckPedia, the Flames have 20 players on one-way NHL deals for the coming season:

They also have three players on entry-level deals that all deserve to be on the NHL roster: Parekh, Gridin and Honzek. Between that trio and the established players on one-way deals, there’s seemingly no room for newcomers, right?

Right?

Huberdeau will begin the 2026-27 regular season on the injury reserve list. We’re not sure when he’ll be an active player, but he’s seven months into recovery from a surgery – hip resurfacing – that general manager Craig Conroy has cited as having a seven to nine month recovery window. We’ll probably get some sort of suggestion of Huberdeau’s time-frame by the end of training camp, but if you assume something like a month or so, that opens the door for somebody to audition for a gig.

The Flames basically have eight blueline regulars who will be vying for everyday work – young Hunter Brzustewicz probably starts the year with the Wranglers – so the available opening is probably on the forward side of things. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of things as camp gets going, but we would suggest that there’s an opportunity for one of the young centres like Sam Morton, Jonathan Castagna or Tyson Gross to start the year on the NHL roster and try to convince the brass that they can be a long-term solution as a fourth-line centre.

Injuries aren’t fun. But this one has potentially opened the door for someone to get an opportunity with the big club. We’ll see over the next 10 days or so who takes advantage of that opportunity.

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