Friends, the National Hockey League is a hard league. Players can be really impressive at lower levels of hockey, but just hit a wall when they reach the best league in the world.

With that in mind, let’s talk about Calgary Flames forward John Beecher. Once a really promising collegiate player, and a first-round NHL draft selection, he just hasn’t been able to put it all together in the NHL quite yet. Because of that, and some recent additions to the organization, his future with the Flames seems a bit uncertain.

A product of Elmira, New York, Beecher is a left shot forward that plays centre and the wing. He impressed in junior hockey and spent two seasons with the U.S. National Development Program, leading to him being selected 30th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft by Boston.

Listed at 6’3″ and 220 pounds, Beecher went to college and spent three seasons at the University of Michigan before signing his entry-level NHL deal with the Bruins. In three years with the Wolverines he posted 39 points in 81 games, a modest offensive output, but he established himself as the type of gritty two-way player that teams win with.

In three seasons seasons with the Bruins on his ELC, he was rock-solid in the AHL with Providence but merely fine with the NHL club. He played primarily in the bottom-six for the Bs; he wasn’t bad, but he didn’t really do enough to become undeniable or carve out a niche for himself.

He signed a one year, one-way deal worth $900,000 during the 2025-26 off-season and faced the possibility of waivers for the first time in his pro career.

Beecher played six times during Boston’s first 21 games, sitting as a paid spectator 15 times. He just never seemed to find a way into head coach Marco Sturm’s plans, and after scoring once in six games – not awful production for a fourth-liner – he was waived on Nov. 17 so that the Bruins could bring up fresh bodies from Providence during a slew of injuries.

The Flames claimed Beecher off waivers on Nov. 18 and he jumped into the lineup, essentially replacing call-up Sam Morton centring the fourth line.

Beecher’s season with the Flames can be cut into two halves: pre-injury and post-injury. In his first 19 games with the Flames, from his waiver claim on Nov. 18 until Jan. 3, and he had two assists. Beecher was injured in a fight on Jan. 3 against Nashville, that bout itself stemming from a punch he threw at Nashville forward Michael McCarron (who was being restrained by the officials) that led to a subsequent payback fight against Nic Hague, in which Beecher was hurt.

Between a short suspension for his sucker-punch and his injury, Beecher missed 15 games. He returned to action on Feb. 26, after the Olympic break, and he played another 10 games and had two goals and two assists. (His two goals both came in the same game.)

The Flames fourth line struggled early in the season – heck, the entire team did – and claiming Beecher seemed like a decent roll of the dice to see if a big-bodied centre could give the line some identity. He got a run of games alongside Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka, and ample time as a secondary penalty-killing forward. His underlying numbers were okay, his penalty-killing results were decent but his underlyings were rough, and he won just 44% of his face-offs in all situations.

He played just six games after the trade deadline. College signing Tyson Gross played six games after joining the Flames. A right-shot centre, he won 50.9% of his face-offs (to Beecher’s 41.1% after the deadline) and stood out quite well in his outings. And he’s 18 months younger than Beecher.

Beecher’s a potential restricted free agent. He would be owed a $945,000 one-way deal as a qualifying offer; a league-minimum NHL salary in 2026-27 is slated to be $850,000.

We’re not sure if Beecher gets a QO. The Flames have a slew of different options for a shot at regular NHL duty waiting in the wings – Morton, Gross, Jonathan Castagna and Carter King, for example – and prospects like Cole Reschny, Cullen Potter and Theo Stockselius a little bit further away.

If Beecher’s willing to take a two-way deal and potentially spend some time with the Wranglers, maybe the Flames take him up on it. (He was a pretty effective AHLer.) But the risk of Beecher accepting and locking in a one-way deal is reason enough for him to probably not get a QO from the Flames. He just didn’t show enough during his audition.