Ahead of the Calgary Flames officially heading into their holiday break, the club has made a couple of transactions. According to the American Hockey League’s transactions page, the club assigned forwards Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers following the Flames’ 6-4 win over Chicago on Saturday. (For cap and waiver purposes, the moves took effect on Sunday.)

It’s natural for Flames fans to be a bit confused as to why a pair of players that took part in the Flames’ win would be sent down during the holiday roster freeze. So let’s explain what’s going on here.

Both Pelletier and Duehr cleared waivers prior to the beginning of the regular season. As such, they can move freely between the NHL and AHL rosters until they have cumulatively spent 30 days on the NHL roster or played in 10 NHL games, whichever comes first, at which point they would require waivers again.

As of Sunday, Pelletier and Duehr have each spent 18 days on the NHL roster. Saturday’s game against Chicago was Pelletier’s eighth game (he has four points) and Duehr’s ninth (he has one point). While the two still have waiver exemption time remaining, it makes a lot of sense to maximize that flexibility and not burn off days on their exemption while the Flames aren’t playing.

In terms of the roster freeze, Pelletier and Duehr were called up on Dec. 12 – they had previously been re-assigned to the Wranglers on an off-day to extend their waiver exemption window – and as part of the NHL’s roster freeze regulations in the CBA, players called up after Dec. 11 are able to be sent back down during the freeze.

In short: this is a normal, procedural thing. Neither player has done anything wrong. There doesn’t seem to be anything wacky happening. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect one or (probably) both of them to be back with the Flames when they hit the practice ice on Dec. 27.