As the Calgary Flames returned to the Saddledome for practice following their Olympic break, the club announced a roster move. Winger Matvei Gridin has been summoned from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

It’s the third NHL stint of the season for Gridin. He made the team out of training camp and remained on the roster until Oct. 17 when Jonathan Huberdeau was activated from the injury reserve. He was recalled again on Jan. 17 and remained on the roster until Feb. 5, when he was sent down for the Olympic break.

So far this season, his first pro campaign, Gridin has six points in 16 NHL games with the Flames and 29 points in 36 AHL games with the Wranglers. He represented the Wranglers at the AHL’s All-Star Classic, helping Team Pacific win that event. A product of Kurgan, Russia, Gridin was selected by the Flames in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, 28th overall, using a pick acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in the Elias Lindholm trade.

Via Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, here’s how everyone lined up at practice on Wednesday morning:

Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Blake Coleman – Morgan Frost – Matvei Gridin
Ryan Lomberg – John Beecher – Adam Klapka

Yan Kuznetsov – MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl – Zach Whitecloud
Joel Hanley – Zayne Parekh
Brayden Pachal

Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley

Via Steinberg: both Coleman and Beecher were in regular jerseys.

Players not on the ice included Martin Pospisil, who’s representing Slovakia at the Winter Olympics in Italy, and injured Flames players Jonathan Huberdeau, Jake Bean and Samuel Honzek. Huberdeau is currently on the active roster, but he’s set to undergo season-ending hip surgery and will (eventually) be placed on the injury reserve list to open up a roster spot.

(Thinking out loud: the Flames aren’t allowed to go below 20 players on their active roster, and so leaving Huberdeau off the IR gives them the option of floating Gridin back to the Wranglers to play games between now and when the Flames start playing again. They could also activate Coleman or Beecher, if they preferred, but slow-playing Huberdeau’s IR assignment gives them flexibility over the next week.)

Not recalled by the Flames, at least right now, was blueliner Hunter Brzustewicz, who was assigned back to the Wranglers with Gridin a couple weeks back. Steinberg alluded to this being a likelihood on Tuesday’s Flames Talk on Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The reasoning behind Brzustewicz sticking with the Wranglers right now is probably two-fold: the Flames already have seven defenders on their roster and there’s no point in calling up Brzustewicz to sit, and the Wranglers’ blueline is pretty lean right now. Given Brzustewicz is in just his second pro season, giving him as many useful developmental reps as possible seems like a prudent approach.

The Flames re-start their regular season, and begin a stretch of 26 games in 50 days to close out their 2025-26 schedule, on Feb. 26 when they visit the San Jose Sharks.