The Calgary Flames added four players on two-way NHL contracts today, bringing in centre Ben Jones and defencemen Jake Livingstone, Mike Benning and Andreas Englund.
Jones is back in the Flames organization after two seasons with the Minnesota Wild and Iowa Wild. The Waterloo, Ontario native appeared in 54 NHL games with Minnesota over the last two campaigns and scored his first NHL goal in 2025-26. He also served as captain of the Iowa Wild last season, putting up 32 points in 37 American Hockey League games.
Before that stretch away, Jones spent two seasons with the Calgary Wranglers from 2022 to 2024. In 143 games with Calgary’s AHL club, he collected 97 points, including 38 goals and 59 assists.
Livingstone, a Creston, British Columbia native, spent the 2025-26 season with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He played 52 games and matched his career high with 17 points. The 6-foot-4 right-shot defender has also logged five NHL games with the Nashville Predators during the 2022-23 season, along with 179 more games in the AHL.
Mike Benning also comes in on a one-year, two-way deal with an $850,000 AAV. The Edmonton native got his first NHL look with the Florida Panthers in 2025-26, skating in 18 games and finishing with two goals and four assists.
In Charlotte, he had a strong AHL season as well, scoring eight goals and 23 assists for 31 points in 57 games, which led Checkers defencemen in scoring. Across three seasons with Charlotte, he totaled 89 points in 183 AHL games.
Benning’s resume also includes a decorated college run at the University of Denver, where he posted 83 points in 101 games and won a National Championship in 2022 while earning Tournament MVP honours.
Englund brings the most NHL mileage of the group. The Stockholm native has played 200 NHL games for the Ottawa Senators, Colorado Avalanche, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators, and has 20 career points along with 190 penalty minutes. The former second-round pick by Ottawa in 2014 appeared in three games for Nashville in 2025-26 and played 52 games with the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL.
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Among the names drawing the most interest are the clubs top 2026 picks, including Carson Carels, Jack Hextall, Chase Harrington and Tobias Trejbal. There is also a local wrinkle in Kent Anderson, a Calgary product who will be with the AHL Wranglers next season, adding a little extra hometown flavor to the group. The one concern in the announcement is the absence of an injured player from on-ice sessions, a reminder that even a prospect camp can be shaped by health before anyone has a chance to make an impression. [Read more 🡒]