We have some news from the Calgary Flames on their off-day Wednesday, gang, and it’s not as interesting as it sounds. The club announced on Wednesday morning that they’ve assigned forwards Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

But before anybody freaks out, it’s probably primarily for waiver and salary cap management purposes.

Let us explain what that means.

Pelletier and Duehr both cleared waivers before the regular season began. After a player clears waivers, they can be freely assigned to the AHL until they have (a) spent 30 days on the NHL roster or (b) played in 10 NHL games. Pelletier and Duehr were both summoned from the AHL on Dec. 2 and they have spent nine days on the big club’s roster, playing in four games apiece in the process. With the Flames off on Wednesday, it would be illogical to let the waiver clocks on both players run unnecessarily. And so, off to the Wranglers they go. (On paper, at least.)

From a cap perspective, sending the players down for a day saves the Flames $8,464 against the cap. It’s not huge, but it might help down the line – cap savings are pro-rated, so $8,464 today is worth a lot more at the end of the season. And since Pelletier is on a two-way deal with a guaranteed salary included – he’s guaranteed $165,000 even if he spends the entire year in the AHL – and Duehr is on a one-way deal, it’s unlikely that either player loses out on salary due to this waiver/cap-saving move.

Long story short: Pelletier and Duehr were sent down… but probably just on paper and probably just for a day.

Through four games, Pelletier has a goal and an assist while Duehr has an assist.

The Flames are back in action on Thursday when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning.