The Calgary Flames are making two lineup changes for Saturday night’s road opener in Vancouver, and both Connor Zary and Yan Kuznetsov are the odd men out.
After a 6-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, the Flames are turning to Brennan Othmann and Joel Hanley, who will both make their season debuts against the Canucks. Othmann is expected to step into Zary’s spot on the third line alongside Ryan Strome and Yegor Sharangovich, while Hanley will join Simon Nemec on the left side at 5-on-5. That shuffle also pushes Kevin Bahl next to Zach Whitecloud.
Flames coach Ryan Huska pointed to puck management when explaining the decision to scratch Zary after just one game. “the importance of taking care of the puck.”
Zary finished Thursday’s game with three giveaways, the most on the team. He logged 13:19 of ice time and had one shot, a minus-one rating, and a secondary assist on Strome’s third-period goal.
Huska said the team “had a lot of guys” who could have come out after the lopsided home loss. Seattle controlled the shot clock 32-25 and scored six times against Dustin Wolf, who will back up Devin Cooley on Saturday as Calgary begins a back-to-back.
Only four Flames players finished Thursday at even: Bahl, Martin Pospisil, Maxim Tysplakov, and Adam Klapka. Calgary also spent plenty of time killing penalties, going 4-for-5 while shorthanded, and had just one power play, which it did not convert.
Zary and Kuznetsov were Calgary’s first two picks in the 2020 NHL Draft. Zary, now 25, has 39 goals and 86 points in 192 NHL games across parts of four seasons with the Flames. Kuznetsov, 24, became a full-time NHL player in 2025-26, when he posted four goals and 12 points in 57 games and moved ahead of both Hanley and Brayden Pachal on the organization’s depth chart.
In Other News...
Flames Loss In Vancouver Exposed A Familiar Problem Again
The Flames left Vancouver with another reminder of how thin the margin can be in a tight, physical game. The Canucks did not exactly light up the scoreboard, but they did enough in a patchy contest to keep Calgary chasing, with Vancouvers calm work in goal helping stabilize a game that never found much flow.
For Calgary, the frustration came from a familiar place: a game that was there to be grabbed, then slipped away as the tone turned heavier and the details got messier. Vancouver brought the kind of edge that can tilt a night like this, while the Canucks still had to survive through a power play that never really found its rhythm. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Suddenly Have A Goalie Decision They Did Not Expect
Leevi Merilinen has given Vancouver something it did not necessarily expect this early in the season: a goalie who has looked poised in limited action. Claimed off waivers from the Ottawa Senators, the 23-year-old has stepped into two games and handled the assignment with a 1.32 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage, numbers that suggest the Canucks may have found more than just a stopgap while Thatcher Demko was out.
The bigger question now is what happens when Demko is ready to return. Vancouver will have to sort through its goalie picture at a time when Merilinen has made a strong early case to stay in the mix, and that kind of unexpected depth can quickly turn into a roster puzzle. For a team that had been watching him since the summer, the timing has only made the conversation more complicated. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Face Early Test Of Discipline In Seattle Rematch
After a loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the Flames were on the move again Sunday, landing in Seattle early and turning quickly toward a 6 p.m. MT rematch with the Kraken. Calgary is looking to get back on track in a game that already feels like a useful early-season measuring stick, especially with Dustin Wolf expected to get the start in goal.
Mikael Backlund pointed to the obvious place the Flames need to clean up: discipline. For a team trying to settle into better habits, the message was less about tactics than about avoiding the kind of penalties that can drag a game off course before it ever really takes shape. Against Seattle, that means Calgary will need a sharper, more composed effort if it wants a different result this time around. [Read more 🡒]