The Calgary Flames hit the ice for a morning of up-tempo practices on Saturday, their third day of training camp.

The club remains in two groupings as they prepare for the beginning of their exhibition schedule on Sunday, when they host the Seattle Kraken.

Matvei Gridin – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Sam Honzek – Mikael Backlund – Joel Farabee
Connor Zary – Ryan Strome – Yegor Sharangovich
Maxim Tsyplakov – Martin Pospisil – Adam Klapka
Chase Harrington / Alex Nylander

Kevin Bahl – Simon Nemec
Yan Kuznetsov – Zach Whitecloud
Jake Middleton – Zayne Parekh
Joel Hanley – Brayden Pachal

Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley

First power play unit: Parekh, Gridin, Coronato, Farabee & Frost

Second power play unit: Nemec, Sharangovich, Tsyplakov, Strome & Zary

As noted by QR Calgary’s Pat Steinberg, seemingly the only changes from the first two days of practice was flipping the PP units that Parekh and Nemec were working with.

Rory Kerins – Tyson Gross – William Stromgren
Dryden Hunt – Ben Jones – Aydar Suniev
Brennan Othmann – Sam Morton – Andrew Basha
Jonathan Castagna – Will Dineen – Luke Philp
Alex Gallant – Carter Wilkie – Ryder Boulton

Abram Wiebe – Hunter Brzustewicz
Andreas Englund – Mike Benning
Axel Hurtig – Jake Livingstone
Kyle Walker – Kent Anderson

Arsenii Sergeev
Kirill Zarubin
Owen Say

(Semyon Konopsky wasn’t part of the session, but he skated with the goalie group separately. They’re continuing to rotate Team Black goalies in practices like they did during prospects camp.)

First power play: Brzustewicz, Suniev, Stromgren, Kerins & Hunt

Second power play: Benning, Jones, Othmann, Basha & Gross

For both groups, there was an emphasis on pace and puck movement.

The drills were usually a mix of quick puck movement, quick transitions in the neutral zone, and utilizing all members of a line or grouping to generate puck movement (and scoring chances). We saw a few odd-man rush drills, along with some that transformed into full unit drills. (Often things would start as a couple offensive players moving the puck up ice, then transition in the neutral zone into a full rush drill with the addition of a third player as the duo changed directions and started attacking the other net.)

Similarly, the power play units also emphasized puck movement, along with deflections and screens in front of the net. It’s clear that the Flames (and Wranglers) are trying to play faster – both in terms of individual player movement and puck movement – as they try to improve upon their prior season’s positioning, and to try to help their many young up-and-comers take the next step.

The Flames begin their four game exhibition schedule on Sunday against Seattle.