Sunday was a travel day for the Calgary Flames, as they head east to prepare for a five game road trip. But in advance of their travels, they made a pair of roster moves, calling up forward Matvei Gridin and defenceman Hunter Brzustewicz from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

There are essentially two separate moves with separate reasonings.

Gridin was assigned to the AHL on trade deadline day in order to keep him eligible to play in the AHL over the remainder of the season. Under the Flames’ interpretation of the new rule forbidding paper transactions, Gridin had to play a game in the AHL before he became eligible to return to the NHL. (Many other teams didn’t do that, but we also don’t know what specifically teams were told by the league, so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.) He played for the Wranglers on Saturday night, and now he’s coming back to the NHL. This was a planned recall.

This is Gridin’s first pro season. He has three goals and seven points in 18 NHL games with the Flames, and 10 goals and 29 points in 37 AHL games with the Wranglers. A first-round pick in 2024, he represented the Wranglers at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic.

Brzustewicz was assigned to the AHL prior to the Olympic break and has been there ever since, as the Flames were carrying seven other defencemen and it didn’t make much sense to have him in the NHL but sitting as a scratch. But Joel Hanley missed Saturday’s game due to illness and Zach Whitecloud is day-to-day with an upper-body injury after crashing into the boards awkwardly in Saturday’s game. As such, the Flames needed a blueliner, and Brzustewicz is the obvious player to call up given he’s a right shot defender and quite good.

This is Brzustewicz’s second pro season. He has one goal and two points in 18 NHL games with the Flames, and four goals and 14 points in 34 AHL games with the Wranglers. A third-round pick in 2023 by Vancouver, he was acquired by the Flames in the Elias Lindholm trade.

With these call-ups, the Flames’ active roster is up to 24 players: two goaltenders, eight defencemen and 14 forwards. We’re thinking that Gridin’s recall is a “regular” one, but with some questions about Hanley and Whitecloud’s availabilities for Monday’s game, it’s possible that Brzustewicz’s call-up is on an emergency basis.

The Flames start their five game road trip on Monday night against the Washington Capitals.