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Where have the Calgary Flames’ free agents landed a dozen days into free agency?
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Photo credit: © Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Pike
Jul 13, 2024, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 13, 2024, 02:05 EDT
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Folks, it’s been 12 days since the floodgates of the National Hockey League’s free agency markets opened and teams began flinging money around. Moreover, it’s been 12 days since NHL players with expiring deals were free to sign with new teams.
We thought it made some sense to check in with the many, many Flames free agents of various types to see who’s landed where so far, and who still has yet to find a hockey home for the 2024-25 campaign.
Let’s dive in!

Unrestricted free agents

The Flames had 11 unrestricted free agents falling into three categories:
  • Group 3 free agents – players who had reached the age of 27 and/or accumulated seven years of service on NHL deals – were Oscar Dansk, Dennis Gilbert, A.J. Greer, Oliver Kylington, Jordan Oesterle, Colton Poolman and Mark Pysyk.
  • Group 6 free agents – players who were 25, had spent three years on NHL deals and had yet to hit specific NHL games-played thresholds – were Ben Jones and Brady Lyle.
  • Potential restricted free agents not receiving qualifying offers were Riley Damiani and Dillon Dube.
Of the 11 UFAs, so far eight have found homes in different clubs and leagues. Gilbert and Poolman signed in Buffalo, Greer signed in Florida, Jones signed in Minnesota and Oesterle signed in Boston. Damiani landed with the Augsburger Panthers of Germany’s DEL. Both Dube and Lyle have contracts with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL.
Dansk, Kylington and Pysyk have yet to have new contracts announced for 2024-25 with any clubs.

Restricted free agents

The Flames had seven players eligible to become Group 2 restricted free agents – the Flames tendered them all qualifying offers to retain their NHL rights, but they’re all eligible to receive offer sheets. Their seven qualified RFAs are Adam Klapka, Yan Kuznetsov, Nikita Okhotiuk, Jakob Pelletier, Cole Schwindt, Ilya Solovyov and Dustin Wolf. Klapka and Solovyov were eligible to file for salary arbitration, but neither did.
So far, none of the seven players have had a new deal announced – with the Flames or elsewhere. Back in May, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that Okhotiuk had signed a deal with CSKA Moskva of the KHL – despite CSKA facing transfer sanctions related to how things went down with them, the Flyers and Ivan Fedotov. We’re inclined to believe Dreger, so we’ll see if a deal ends up being announced by CSKA. Either way, the Flames tendered Okhotiuk a qualifying offer, so they retain his NHL rights until he’s 27 (and would be eligible to become a Group 2 free agent).
Where do you think the remaining UFAs end up? What kind of deals do you think the RFAs hammer out with the Flames? (We’ll provide our best guesses in the coming days!) Let us know in the comments!

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