We’re into the final week of training camp, and the Calgary Flames have a lot of players still on their training camp roster, a pair of pre-season games left with the Winnipeg Jets, and a lot of things to figure out before opening night.

Here’s what Huska said on Tuesday morning in response to a question from Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg:

As the sun rises on Wednesday, here’s where things stand with the Flames’ camp roster, which has 35 players on it.

Vladar and Cooley require waivers; Wolf is waiver exempt.

Everybody except Brzustewicz would require waivers to send to the AHL. Brzustewicz is waiver exempt. Solovyov is presently on waivers. Barrie is on a PTO and would require waivers if/when he signs an NHL deal to send to the minors. (No waivers would be required to release him outright, or to sign and keep him on the NHL roster.

Everybody except Coronato, Honzek, Klapka and Morton would require waivers to send to the AHL. Frk and Kirkland have already cleared waivers and can be sent to the AHL freely.

The Flames have to file a cap compliant roster – with cap commitments of between $65 million and $88 million – comprised of between 20 and 23 players by 3 p.m. MT this coming Monday.

The Flames entered camp with three prospective NHL goalies. The bad news is nobody has obviously played their way out of an NHL roster spot. Dustin Wolf is waiver exempt and the “easy” move would be to send him to the AHL. However… what’s left for him to accomplish in the AHL, and would sending him down – even for the short term – be the right thing for his development?

On paper, the Flames entered camp with six prospective NHL defenders and some logical pairings: MacKenzie Weegar and Daniil Miromanov, Kevin Bahl and Rasmus Andersson, and Jake Bean and Brayden Pachal. Pachal arguably had the most tenuous grip on an NHL spot, but he’s done a good job in pre-season games making a case for himself.

So if six spots are sewn up, who takes the seventh spot? The two leading options seem to be defensive specialist Jarred Tinordi and offensive specialist Tyson Barrie. Tinordi is on an NHL deal, while Barrie is on a professional try-out deal and would need to be signed… which would push Tinordi down to the AHL and potentially take a bit of ice time away from a younger, developing player.

The Flames have three experienced NHL centres: Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund and Kevin Rooney. We’ve seen Connor Zary, Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil tried out at centre so far in the pre-season. While all three of those gentlemen are locks for NHL duty when the season begins, which of them will start the campaign playing up the middle?

On paper, it feels like about 11 forward spots are locked in. That leaves two spots if the Flames carry three goalies or three spots if they carry two goalies. So… which players get those spots? If we’re judging purely by merit, you probably give those spots to Sam Honzek, Matt Coronato and Adam Klapka, who have individually and collectively been superb during pre-season. (Yeah, we’re aware that there would be one regular NHL lineup spot for the three of them to share, but they’ve played well enough to be on the opening roster.)

But pure merit isn’t the only consideration, particularly when it comes to asset management and the possibility of placing (and losing) 2019 first-round pick Jakob Pelletier on the waiver wire. Pelletier was considered an NHL lineup lock a year ago and his last year has been derailed by injury woes. While he hasn’t been great in pre-season, we kind of doubt that the shine has come completely off the apple (so to speak) – it’s not like the things that had the Flames ready to lock him onto their NHL roster have completely disappeared.

The Pelletier and goaltending situations, respectively, complicate what otherwise would have been a relatively straightforward forward situation. Honzek’s barely played any pro hockey, so sending him to the AHL wouldn’t be the end of the world, but Coronato and Klapka have put in good work at the AHL level and arguably earned NHL opportunities. Can the Flames balance all of these challenges?

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