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What Jonathan Aspirot and Ilya Solovyov’s NHL successes are teaching the Flames
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Photo credit: Angela Burger/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Feb 4, 2026, 16:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 4, 2026, 16:44 EST
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Two defenders who were in the Calgary Flames organization last year, Ilya Solovyov and Jonathan Aspirot are making waves in the NHL this season. While this is incredible for the players as individuals, it makes you wonder if other teams are reaping the benefits of the development the Flames did. Solovyov was an early season waiver claim when tough roster decisions needed to be made this fall and Aspirot was an everyday AHLer for the Wranglers, who didn’t even seem to be in the conversation for call-ups. Aspirot was picked up over the summer when free agency opened up.

Ilya Solovyov

Perhaps the defender the Flames and fans alike are most familiar with. Ilya Solovyov. Soloyov was drafted in the seventh round, 205th overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft by the Calgary Flames. He was in the AHL system ever since and got his first few looks in the NHL in the 2023-24 season, where he played 10 games with the Flames. Last season, he only appeared in five games and played most of the season with the Calgary Wranglers. 
This season, Solovyov has reached a season high in games played in the NHL with 16 games with the Colorado Avalanche. In that time, he scored his first NHL goal and earned a total of three points.
He has been mostly in the NHL this season but ended up playing three games with the AHL affiliate of the Avalanche, the Eagles in December on a conditioning assignment. On Jan. 20, he was traded over to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He’s played four games with the Penguins so far and put up two assists in that time. Solovyov has not hit that everyday NHLer status just yet, but he went from a top pairing AHL defenceman to playing alongside players like Cale Makar, Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby. Safe to say the company is not that bad at all. 

Jonathan Aspirot

Aspirot is an undrafted defender who first got started in pro hockey with the Belleville Senators from the 2019-2023 seasons. He joined the Wranglers as a free agent in the 2023-24 season and served as an alternate captain last season. In 2023-24, he played in 66 regular season games and put up 33 points. The following season, he played in 65 regular season games and put up 29 points. 
Aspirot served a unique role with the Wranglers. He was sort of the Swiss Army knife of the team, playing up and down all the defensive pairings and even slotting in on the fourth line as a forward at times. The Wranglers dealt with injuries and call-up troubles last season that required him to play up front to not only get him game action, but also fill out the lineup. This also gave some flexibility if they were looking to run 11 forwards and seven defencemen, but Aspirot would tend to stick to one role a game. 
After six years in the AHL, finally an organization had a spot for him in the NHL. That spot was with the Boston Bruins. He signed a one-year contract last July and with the success he has been having with the Bruins, his contract has been extended for another two years as of Jan. 11. Aspirot played the first five games of the season with the Providence Bruins, then was called up by Boston and hasn’t looked back. He had three points in five games in the AHL this season. With the NHL club, he’s already played in 36 games and has seven points in that time. He also participated in the Stadium Series game on Feb. 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, where they fell in the shootout. Aspirot has been skating on the top pairing alongside Charlie McAvoy as of late. 
Aspirot’s emergence is very interesting, as before this season, he had not played a single game in the NHL between the Senators or the Flames. For Calgary, his contributions were noticed but never to the point of giving him a game with the big club. What did the Bruins see that the Flames miss?

Depth considerations

What this season has revealed is that the Flames have options on the blue line. Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz and Yan Kuznetsov are all in the mix now and with only six spots, some roster risks were to be expected. In a way, it’s benefiting all of these players that things happened the way they did. Maybe Kuznetsov needed that block of Solovyov removed to get a long look at the NHL. Maybe Aspirot would’ve been stuck in the AHL all year again had the Bruins not taken a chance on him.
The learning point from this seems to be reflected in how Yan Kuznetsov is being managed this year. Kuznetsov was in the AHL to start the year and has not looked back since Nov. 4. Similarly to Aspirot, Kuznetsov has earned a spot along the regular D-pairings and is producing at the NHL level. There are still NHL success stories to take out of this on the Flames’ end. Calgary’s future development stories will hopefully be those of Yan Kuznetsov, Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz and beyond. 
It’s interesting to think what could have been had the Flames leveraged one or both of these players a little more in the NHL squad in the last couple of seasons. Now that their paths have changed, we wish them continued success with their respective clubs.
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