Friends, nobody’s sure when the North American hockey season will begin. As such, many NHL clubs are trying to find places for their kids to play. The Calgary Flames are one of those clubs.

The Flames assigned winger Eetu Tuulola to Vasterviks IK of HockeyAllsvenskan on Tuesday morning.

Tuulola, 22, was the Flames sixth round selection in the 2016 NHL Draft. Originally from Hameenlinna, Finland, he played a season with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, then went back home to play two years of pro with HPK in the SM-Liiga, then signed with the Flames and came back to North America to play with Stockton.

In short: he’s played a lot of high-end hockey in some good leagues the last few years, and doesn’t seem to mind traveling back and forth across the Atlantic to better himself. He’ll join a team in the Swedish secondary league that’s added Washington Capitals prospect Axel Jonsson Fjalby and former Ottawa Senators blueliner Andreas England.

We’ve confirmed that Tuulola will be available to return to Stockton when NHL and AHL camps eventually open. The other Flames properties in Europe on loan are Martin Pospisil (in Slovakia) and Johannes Kinnvall (in Sweden). Kinnvall’s loan was planned prior to the pandemic and is for the entire season, while Pospisil will also be available for Stockton’s camp.