On Tuesday after practice, Calgary Flames interim head coach Geoff Ward informed the media that Travis Hamonic has begun skating on his own. With five weeks left in the regular season, it’s seeming likely that the Flames will have Hamonic available before the season ends.

This begs the question: what happens to the defensive pairings with he comes back?

Since Mark Giordano returned from injury, here’s the three pairings that assistant coach Ryan Huska has been deploying on the back end:

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson
Derek Forbort – Erik Gustafsson

The extras right now are Oliver Kylington and Michael Stone.

When Hamonic returns, he’ll play the right side. So who moves around and who comes out?

In this scenario, Hamonic comes in to play with Hanifin. That bumps Andersson to the top pairing with Giordano and Brodie slides to the third pair to play either on Forbort’s right side or Gustafsson’s left. Which guy gets bumped out depends probably on what they feel gives the Flames the best chance to win. (Gustafsson’s usage suggests that he’d stick.)

This scenario would go with the strongest pairings the Flames arguably have offensively, though a Brodie/Gustafsson combo could be risky defensively.

This one is pretty simple: Hamonic plays with Hanifin, which bumps Andersson to the third pair. Gustafsson moves to the left side of an all-Swede pair and all is right with the world.

This is the same as above, except the Flames opt for a more defensive posture and keep Forbort in with Andersson and bump Gustafsson to the press box.

So who comes out for Hamonic and what do the pairings look like when he’s back? Sound off in the comments!