This article is brought to you by bet365.
We’re in the final week of training camps across the National Hockey League, and clubs are working hard on making their final roster decisions to trim down their rosters to the league-mandated 23-man maximum by this coming Monday’s deadline.
One of the hurdles clubs have to navigate as they cut down their rosters is the risk posed by the league’s waiver wire. For players that meet specific age and experience requirements, waivers is a process that offers them up to the rest of the league before they can be assigned to the American Hockey League.
When it comes to the Calgary Flames, there are a pair of players that could provide waiver challenges: forward Jakob Pelletier and goaltender Devin Cooley.

Jakob Pelletier

A first-round selection, 26th overall, in the 2019 NHL Draft, Pelletier is a left shot winger. While a tad undersized compared to the rest of the league, the 5’10”, 180 pound Pelletier was a superb junior player with Val-d’Or and Moncton, and represented Canada at a bevy of international tournaments on his way to pro hockey.
Since he’s gone pro, he’s emerged as a really effective AHL forward, using his speed, awareness and tenacity to become one of the more impressive prospects in the Flames system. Unfortunately, his train to the NHL was derailed a couple big hits during the 2023-24 season: one from Seattle prospect Marian Studenic during pre-season that required shoulder surgery, and another after his NHL return in the spring from New York Rangers defender Jacob Trouba that nearly led to another substantial injury.
When Pelletier returned to action after missing time following the Trouba hit, he lacked the speed and swagger his game usually had prior to his injuries. Moreover, those elements haven’t been present during Flames’ training camp this year in the requisite amounts for Pelletier to become a no-doubt Game 1 player.
He is very much on the roster bubble and could hit the waiver wire. The question is whether or not the Flames want to roll the dice. As a first-round selection in a past draft, Pelletier is a player that teams likely have a good deal of knowledge on via their scouts. And three players in similar situations – past high draft selections on the roster bubble – were claimed last October in the waiver shuffle: Gregori Denisenko (claimed by Vegas from Florida), Liam Foudy (claimed by Nashville from Columbus) and Samuel Fagemo (claimed by Nashville from Los Angeles).
There’s a decent chance that a team that’s lacking NHL-ready players or has doubts about their winger depth could put a claim in on Pelletier to bolster their roster for the start of the season, especially with the winger on a one year deal with a league minimum $775,000 cap hit. A claim on Pelletier would have a very low risk involved for the claiming team.

Devin Cooley

An undrafted netminder out of Los Gatos, CA, Cooley played his college hockey at the University of Denver and then entered the Nashville system as a college free agent.
He’s bounced around a bit, spending time in the AHL with Chicago and Milwaukee and the ECHL with Florida before signing with Buffalo last off-season. He spent more AHL time with Rochester before being traded mid-season to San Jose, where he played his first six NHL games. He signed with the Flames as a free agent this summer.
The challenge with Cooley is this: he’s barely played in the NHL, and when he did it was behind a dreadful defence in San Jose for just six games. He’s shown well in Flames camp, and if you’re a team that may be looking for short-term goaltending help, he could be a decent enough band-aid measure.
Anaheim has recently lost John Gibson for awhile.
Edmonton may have dodged a bullet with backup Calvin Pickard, but Cooley could insulate them a bit in the interim.
Alex Nedeljkovic suffered an injury on Monday night and the Penguins may need a bit of short-term help.
The Canucks are without Thatcher Demko for a bit, and perhaps they could see Cooley as a favourable alternative to leaning on Kevin Lankinen or Arturs Silovs.
The Flames are a team with a few goalies they like at the NHL level in Dan Vladar, Dustin Wolf and Cooley. If they lose Cooley on waivers, the only goalie with the Wranglers that’s on an NHL deal is Waltteri Ignatjew, who’s played zero games of consequence in North America. A Cooley claim makes the Flames’ netminding depth pretty lean rather quickly.
When you’re putting together your opening day roster, you’re trying to put the 23 players that will help you win the most games. You probably try not to make moves due to waiver fears. But you also don’t want to lose good players for nothing, or to erode your team’s organizational depth unnecessarily.
And that’s the fine line the Flames will try to walk between now and when rosters are due to the league at 3 p.m. MT on Monday.