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Flames sign four players to one year, two-way deals, including the return of Ben Jones
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Photo credit: Candice Ward/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Jul 1, 2026, 18:29 EDT
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The Calgary Flames are bringing one of their previous top scoring AHL centres to the organization. Ben Jones, as part of a quartet of players signed to one year, two-way deals on Wednesday.
Jones was announced as a free agent signing on July 1 and has been picked up on a one year, two-way contract with an $850,000 cap hit. Jones was on the Calgary Wranglers for their first two years in the city and played with many NHL graduated players still in the city like Adam Klapka, Dustin Wolf, Yan Kuznetsov, Martin Pospisil, Connor Zary and Matt Coronato. Jones was picked up by the Minnesota Wild for the last two seasons and served as the Captain of the Iowa Wild last season. 
In his time with the Wranglers, Jones had a career season in their inaugural year with 17 goals and 37 assists in 71 games. He was behind only Matthew Phillips and Connor Zary in scoring. In his second season in Calgary, he had 43 points in 72 games, behind just Adam Klapka in scoring. Jones was a clutch player in the regular season and for the post-season play in both seasons.
Jones is a sniper and that would still rank highly in an AHL lineup if he does not crack an NHL spot. He had previous line chemistry with Adam Klapka and Rory Kerins and Kerins just exceeded Jones’ scoring record as of last October. Jones can play the wing or centre and fills a gap in centre both the AHL and NHL squads are facing. 
Since Jones went to the Wild, he has played in 54 more NHL games and 86 more AHL games. In 2025-26, he had three points in 28 games with the Minnesota Wild and 32 points in 37 games with the Iowa Wild. Jones can play at the NHL but still is a high performing AHLer when he’s at that level, averaging nearly a point per game. 
Jones also brings that leadership aspect and familiarity with Calgary that works at both the AHL and NHL levels. Many of his former teammates are part of the Flames’ plan moving forward and on the AHL level, the Wranglers are going to be looking for a new captain with Clark Bishop signing in Syracuse and at the very least, he could serve as an option for their leadership group as alternate captain. 
This is a great signing for the organization and provides a 27-year-old veteran who is still not past his prime by any means. If he is to end up mostly with the Wranglers, he helps fill the gap of older players and brings back some scoring they will lose with Martin Frk departing. Jones has also been able to stay healthy to play full seasons for the last five years and will be a morale boost for whichever club he starts the season with in the fall.
The Flames also announced the signings of three newcomers to the organization on Wednesday:
  • 27-year-old right-shot defenceman Jake Livingstone, with an $850,000 cap hit. He played 5 NHL games with Nashville.
  • 24-year-old right-shot defenceman Michael Benning, with an $850,000 cap hit. He played 18 NHL games with Florida.
  • 30-year-old left-shot defenceman Andreas Englund, with a $900,000 cap hit. He’s a veteran of 200 NHL games between Ottawa, Colorado, Chicago, Los Angeles and Nashville.
We’ll have more on Flames (and Wranglers) signings as they’re made official.

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