The Calgary Flames have signed some minor league defensive depth. On Tuesday, they announced the signing of blueliner Nick Cicek to a one year, two-way deal worth $775,000 at the NHL level.

The 25-year-old Cicek, a Winnipeg kid, is a left shot defender listed at 6’3″ and 201 pounds.

He played four seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, including serving as captain in his final year, 2020-21. He wasn’t drafted by any NHL clubs, but he joined the American Hockey League’s San Jose Barracuda on an AHL contract for the 2021-22 season.

He impressed enough that year to earn a two year entry-level deal with the Sharks. He spent much of those two seasons with the Barracuda, though he played 16 games with the Sharks in 2022-23, posting four assists. He was traded midway through the 2023-24 season to the Vancouver Canucks along with a sixth-round pick in exchange for Jack Studnicka. He didn’t receive a qualifying offer after the 2023-24 season and headed to Europe, joining Adler Mannheim on a one year deal. He posted 17 points in 50 games in the DEL, Germany’s top pro league, last season.

Given the Flames’ needs, signing Cicek is a pretty low-risk move. He’s likely destined for a season with the Calgary Wranglers, and as a 25-year-old he fits into a bit of a gap in the Flames’ reserve list in terms of that age group. (He’s about the same age as Ilya Solovyov and Adam Klapka.) He’s older than most of the kids in their system, but he’s not old.

He has four pro seasons under his belt and has played NHL games, so he could provide some nice guidance to a really young AHL defensive group on the farm. And when you actually look at his AHL production over three seasons in San Jose and Abbotsford, he produced reasonably well. If nothing else, he’s a veteran left shot pro that can be mixed and matched with the Flames’ existing pieces.

With the signing, the Flames are up to 40 players on NHL contracts for 2025-26. They have six restricted free agents to iron out deals with, as well.