The Calgary Flames made four moves on 2026’s trade deadline day. And when the dust settled, their American Hockey League affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers, ended up getting some roster reinforcements.

Well, at least for now.

The Flames made a pair of moves that will bolster the Wranglers’ forward group. Early on Friday, the Flames re-assigned Matvei Gridin to the Wranglers. They also acquired forward Brennan Othmann from the New York Rangers in a swap for prospect Jacob Battaglia. Othmann was with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, and the Flames re-assigned him back to the Wranglers.

Based on our understanding of the rules – and it’s the first year for the new AHL assignment rules, so our understanding may be clunky – Gridin was required to play a game for the Wranglers before he would become eligible to go back up to the NHL. (That was the Flames’ understanding of the rules as had been explained to them by the league, anyway.)

But it doesn’t sound like Gridin will be with the Wranglers for very long.

“The rules have changed a little bit,” said Conroy during his post-deadline press conference. “Like he has to play one game. So he’ll go down and play one game. Then he will be coming back to the Flames. So I know people would probably be upset. But, you know, he’s played so well. We’re so happy with him, but we do want him to keep playing as much as he can. So as we move forward here, if the Wranglers make it in, he has that option to play in there.”

Conroy discussed the thought process behind acquiring Othmann.

“You know, Othmann is a guy that we’ve liked in the past,” said Conroy. “And, you know, obviously with Jacob [Battaglia], we’ve had him, we’ve drafted him. We haven’t even seen him here as a pro. But we thought kind of where Othmann is in his age group, if we could make that switch a little closer and ready to the NHL. And he plays with passion. He plays hard. You know, so I think he’s going to have an opportunity to maybe be there a little bit quicker where Jacob was going to take more time. And we do have a lot of these picks now. And, you know, we have a lot of people in the pipeline. So we have to figure out how we’re going to play him and who’s going to be able to come up and help us get to where we want to be.”

Conroy confirmed that Othmann will also begin with the Wranglers, but he noted that there will likely be some movement in the rosters over the next while.

“We’re going to have moving parts down this last stretch of games,” said Conroy. “So we’re going to see players come up. We have our recalls, and there’s going to be opportunity for these young guys because we do want to see them. We want to give them a chance, and I think if you give a young guy’s chances, whether it’s one game, five games, heading into the summer, it makes them that much more hungry. They want to come back and make sure they make this team.”

The Flames are back in action on Saturday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes. The Wranglers are back in action when they visit the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

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