The Calgary Flames have made another roster move as they prepare to return to action following the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Defenceman Tyson Barrie, who was placed on waivers on Thursday, officially cleared the waiver process on Friday afternoon. He was subsequently assigned by the Flames to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

The 33-year-old Barrie, as previously noted, joined the Flames on a professional try-out deal at training camp. He performed well enough in camp to earn a one-way NHL contract with a $1.25 million cap hit, with the hope that the long-time power play specialist could work his magic on the Flames’ special teams – especially coming off a rough year for the Flames’ PP in 2023-24.

Well, the power play has rebounded, but Barrie hasn’t been much of a part in it unfortunately. Barrie’s struggled to stay in the lineup or deal with the speed of the modern NHL. He’s played primarily on the third pairing, playing on his off-side on the left side of Brayden Pachal. The thought process made sense: Pachal is a reliable two-way defender, which would allow Barrie to freelance a bit more to create scoring chances. But it didn’t work out that way, and so Barrie was a healthy scratch more often than not.

For the Flames, Barrie’s assignment to the Wranglers drops the big club to 21 players on their active roster, with Kevin Bahl and Connor Zary full practice participants but still technically on the injury reserve list. All signs are pointing towards Bahl and Zary being activated from the IR before Sunday’s game, which would give the Flames a full 23-man roster with eight blueliners – Rasmus Andersson, Bahl, Joel Hanley, MacKenzie Weegar, Jake Bean, Pachal, Daniil Miromanov and Ilya Solovyov. The Flames will carry a $100,000 cap penalty with Barrie in the AHL; the other $1.15 million of his cap hit comes off the books.

For the Wranglers, Barrie going to the AHL gives them a nice boost, with a proven veteran that looked very good during his prior conditioning stint. The Wranglers are a team with designs on pushing for a Calder Cup this season, and adding Barrie to the mix gives them a formidable player that could help the team with what it’s struggled with recently: scoring goals.

The Wranglers return to action on Saturday on the road against Coachella Valley. The Flames are back in action at home on Sunday against San Jose.