The Calgary Flames have officially announced their 2018-19 pre-season schedule and, to the surprise of nobody, it’s a little weird. The club will participate in 10 pre-season games between Sept. 15 and 29 – including a pair of games in China – and they’ll be playing a pair of prospects games as well.

In lieu of participating in the Young Stars Classic event in Penticton, the Flames’ prospects will be playing the Edmonton Oilers prospects in a pair of games. The teams will meet on Sept. 9 in Calgary and Sept. 12 in Red Deer. Most likely we’ll see the same caliber of prospects that we typically would in Penticton, just with a much shorter driving distance for Flames fans (and media).

Here are the 10 dates for Flames’ pre-season games (times are MT):

Now, 10 pre-season games violates section 15.4 of the CBA. But it’s likely that the Flames have an exemption because they have one group of players that will be in China for the better part of 10 days, while they have a domestic group that will play games here. It’s incredibly unlikely that anybody who played in Beijing will play until at least Sept. 24, so the long and the short of it is no players will be playing in 10 games so the spirit of the rule remains intact.

The main takeaways? Two prospect games within reasonable driving distance, and three of the four Calgary-based pre-season games will be played over a four day period.

Tickets for the pre-season games go on sale at the end of August.