Flames set 31-man playoff roster

For the curious, that’s eight right shots (five forwards, three defenders) and 19 left shots (12 forwards, seven defenders). From a nationality standpoint, the roster has 13 Canadians, eight Americans, five Swedes, two Russians, a Czech, a German and a Finn. This is the first time in probably close to a decade that they’ll have multiple Russians on their active roster.

Mackey’s an easy decision. He signed with the Flames after the trade deadline and isn’t eligible to play in the post-season under league rules. Flames interim coach Geoff Ward had a lot of positive things to say about his time with Mackey.

Ruzicka was the victim of the numbers game. He impressed in camp, but the function of his participation (as the youngest and least experienced player involved) was to soak up the wisdom of his teammates and use the experience to grow his game between now and the next training camp. Here’s Ward on Ruzicka’s camp and what they hope he takes away from the experience.

Neither Gawdin or Phillips participated in either of the last two scrimmages, nor the practices in-between. While Ward wasn’t asked to comment on their statuses – and let’s be honest, there’s nothing he could’ve said really – their unclear availabilities and lack of practice and scrimmage reps compared to the other forwards in camp probably contributed to the decision to leave them outside the bubble.