In the National Hockey League, having a group of players who don’t require clearing waivers to assign to the the American Hockey League can be very valuable. If nothing else, it affords an organization an amount of roster flexibility with the ability to bring players up and down from the minors much more freely than with players that require waivers.

For the upcoming 2023-24 season, the Calgary Flames have 13 waiver exempt players under contact.

The waiver exempt crew includes:

Heading into camp, obviously keep your eye on Wolf, Pelletier, Coronato and Zary. All four players are coming off very effective 2022-23 seasons. Wolf, Pelletier and Coronato each made their NHL debuts, while Zary was very consistent in a thankfully injury-free AHL season – his previous season was derailed due to injuries. Each player’s waiver status gives the Flames the ability to audition them at the NHL level without much risk. Obviously, though, trying out Wolf in the NHL probably requires an existing NHL goaltender to be unavailable or elsewhere when the season begins.

Becoming eligible for waivers for the first time in 2023-24 are Emilio Pettersen and Walker Duehr. Duehr was really effective in a fourth line role during stints with the Flames in 2022-23, and he’s recently signed a two-year, one-way deal (at an $825,000 cap hit). Duehr’s not a lock for the NHL roster, but he’ll need to play his way off the team based on his contract and waiver status.