The Calgary Flames have officially set their opening roster, and the first two roster moves tell the story of where things stand heading into the season.
Forward Aydar Suniev has been assigned to the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers, while Jonathan Huberdeau has been placed on injury reserve as he continues his recovery from hip surgery in March. Those moves get the Flames down to a 23-man active roster.
Suniev is waiver exempt, so the Flames were able to send him down without exposing him to another club. The 21-year-old from Kazan, Russia arrived in North America in 2019-20 to chase his hockey career, working through a complicated path that included prep school hockey across Canada and the United States before he landed with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees. Calgary took him in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft, and he later spent two seasons at the University of Massachusetts before signing his entry-level deal.
His first pro season left a strong impression. At the end of 2025-26, Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter told Postmedia’s Danny Austin that Suniev might have been the team’s most improved player.
That tracks with what he showed over the course of the season: a player who still had the shot, but had also figured out much better how to use it in pro hockey. He went from looking a little out of place to looking far more comfortable and far more dangerous.
If the Flames need a top nine forward during the season, Suniev looks like one of the first names likely to get the call.
Huberdeau’s situation is different. The 33-year-old came to Calgary in the Matthew Tkachuk trade in the 2022 off-season and has not matched the offensive numbers he posted in Florida.
Even so, he has worked to reshape his game and become an effective two-way player. He played through a worsening hip issue for much of last season, and likely before that as well, before undergoing surgery in March.
General manager Craig Conroy has recently said the expectation for Huberdeau’s return was seven-to-nine months after surgery. That makes October an optimistic target, but he is now entering the general window for a possible return. The next signs will come as he continues rehab and eventually gets back on the ice with the team.
Here is how the Flames’ opening roster looks:
Goaltenders: Devin Cooley (#1), Dustin Wolf (#32)
Defencemen: Kevin Bahl (#7), Zayne Parekh (#19), Zach Whitecloud (#28), Yan Kuznetsov (#37), Joel Hanley (#44), Jake Middleton (#55), Simon Nemec (#71), Brayden Pachal (#94)
Forwards: Mikael Backlund (#11), Morgan Frost (#16), Yegor Sharangovich (#17), Ryan Strome (#22), Matt Coronato (#27), Sam Honzek (#29), Adam Klapka (#43), Connor Zary (#47), Maxim Tsyplakov (#72), Martin Pospisil (#76), Brennan Othmann (#78), Joel Farabee (#86), Matvei Gridin (#92)
Injury reserve: Jonathan Huberdeau (#10)
The Flames’ opening roster, along with retained salary on Blake Coleman and Nazem Kadri, carries $90.1 million in salary cap commitments and leaves $13.9 million in space under the $104 million cap ceiling. Because Calgary has that room available, Huberdeau is on standard injury reserve rather than long-term injury reserve.
In Other News...
Flames Opening Night Roster Sends An Early Message About This Team
The Flames have settled on their opening-night group for the 2026-27 season, and the first look at the roster says plenty about how Calgary is trying to start this year. The club is carrying 13 forwards and 8 defensemen, with Brennan Othmann sticking around after a strong preseason showing, a sign that the team is at least willing to reward camp performance when it matters.
There is also a clearer picture of the veterans the Flames trust to help set the tone. Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal are on the roster, while Aydar Suniev was assigned to the American Hockey League, trimming one more young option from the mix. Jonathan Huberdeau is on injured reserve, which adds another layer to the early-season puzzle as Calgary works through its first lineup decisions without one of its most established names. [Read more 🡒]
Wranglers Scoreless Debut Raises An Early Concern Up Front
The Calgary Wranglers first pre-season game in team history ended the way no new club wants to start, with a 3-0 loss to the Abbotsford Canucks and an offense that never found a breakthrough. Abbotsford grabbed control early with two first-period goals, while Calgary had to lean on goaltender Arsenii Sergeev, who made several key saves to keep the score from getting worse as the game went on.
Even with the puck spending plenty of time in the Canucks end, the Wranglers could not convert their chances and left the ice looking for answers up front. The late empty-net goal only added to the frustration, but the bigger concern was the same one that lingered from the opening period: Calgary generated looks, yet never managed to turn pressure into a goal. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Preseason Just Created A Real Roster Debate
The Flames preseason has done more than sort out line combinations - it has started to draw a line between the young players who look ready to push for jobs and the veterans still working their way back. Sam Honzek, Matvei Gridin and Aydar Suniev all flashed enough to keep the conversation alive, while the defense side of the roster remains crowded enough that every game seemed to carry some kind of audition. Even with the obvious caveat that exhibition play can mislead, Calgary has spent the last stretch learning which prospects are forcing the issue and which names still need more runway.
Zayne Parekh has been the clearest example of that pressure, emerging as the most dangerous skater in camp and giving the Flames a real reason to think about how soon he can factor in. Simon Nemec, meanwhile, did not leave the same kind of mark, which only sharpened the contrast in a preseason that already had plenty of moving parts. Add in Jonathan Huberdeaus continued recovery from hip resurfacing surgery, and the club is left weighing not just who earned a look, but how the early-season roster might have to be built around the players it cannot yet count on. [Read more 🡒]