Flames reassign Mangiapane, Hrivik and Lomberg to Stockton

The Calgary Flames have begun their five-day break and, given that they’re not playing games for the better part of a week, they’ve engaged in a bit of house-cleaning.

Today the club announced that they have reassigned three forwards to the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat: Andrew Mangiapane, Marek Hrivik and Ryan Lomberg. All three players are waiver exempt, so they can be sent to the minors without requiring them to clear waivers.

With the moves, the Flames now have the bare minimum of 20 players on their active roster: two goaltenders, seven defensemen and 11 forwards. That’s all they’re required by the CBA to keep up and, given that they’re not playing again until Saturday, they save a bit of cap space by sending down the players that can easily be sent to Stockton (and the bubble players get a chance to play an extra game).

The Heat play Wednesday (in San Jose), Friday and Saturday (in Stockton), so presumably Mangiapane comes up before the Friday game (to avoid playing three games in three nights) while one of Hrivik or Lomberg probably come back up after Friday if they’re going to be a healthy scratch for Calgary on Saturday against Winnipeg.