Craig Conroy’s offseason work has left the Calgary Flames with a crowded blue line and one obvious name on the outside looking in: Hunter Brzustewicz.
The Flames have kept adding pieces on defence, both for now and for later. Conroy brought in 22-year-old, right-shot Simon Nemec from the New Jersey Devils for three draft picks and Etienne Morin.
Calgary also used the sixth overall pick on Carson Carels, a player projected to become a top-pairing defenceman down the road. Then came Jake Middleton from the Minnesota Wild as part of the Blake Coleman trade.
That leaves the Flames with 10 players on the blue line who appeared in NHL games last season. And as of July 7, Brzustewicz, who is 21, looks like the odd man out.
So what’s the best path for him?
One option is a trip to the AHL, and specifically the Calgary Wranglers. That won’t be a popular call with Brzustewicz, his agent, or plenty of Flames fans who want to see him in the NHL after the progress he made last season. But the question is whether a 21-year-old defenceman, just entering his third pro season, is actually better served by bouncing in and out of an NHL lineup.
If he’s stuck on the third pair at five-on-five with no power-play time, that’s one kind of development. If he’s in the AHL playing first-pair minutes and running the top power-play unit, that’s another. If Brzustewicz takes over down there and proves he’s clearly ready, the Flames can always adjust later.
There’s also the fact that he is waiver exempt, so Calgary does not have to worry about losing him the way it did with Ilya Solovyov last year.
Another route would be moving Zach Whitecloud. Brzustewicz is not going to jump ahead of Simon Nemec, Zayne Parekh, or Whitecloud, at least not right now. Nemec and Parekh are too important to the Flames’ future to be shortchanged on ice time, and Whitecloud brings the kind of shutdown work on the right side that Calgary needs at five-on-five and on the penalty kill.
But trading Whitecloud would be a major decision. He’s not just a useful defender; he’s also the kind of veteran presence that matters during a rebuild. The leadership he provides off the ice, plus the minutes he can handle on it, make him a tough player to move.
There’s also the idea of shifting Parekh to the left side. On paper, it creates room.
In practice, it’s a tough ask. Playing your off side is hard enough in the NHL without asking a 20-year-old with 38 games of experience to make quick decisions on his backhand at game speed.
That means breakout passes, puck retrievals along the boards, and all the little details that become a lot harder when the pace jumps.
That kind of experiment might make sense later, but next season feels too soon. And if Parekh moved left, someone like Yan Kuznetsov or Jake Middleton would have to sit, and that does not seem like a regular healthy-scratch situation the coaching staff would want to create.
The other possibility is to trade Brzustewicz himself. If Calgary believes Whitecloud will remain part of the organization beyond his current deal, then Brzustewicz could become the movable piece. The right side is crowded at the NHL level, and Henry Mews is also on the way in the next few years.
Brzustewicz could bring real value back. A 21-year-old right-shot defenceman with his pedigree is not the kind of player who comes up often. He could even be part of a bigger package for a young centre, which is the sort of thing Craig Conroy may want to explore.
If it were up to me, though, the move would be to send Brzustewicz to the Wranglers. Let him be the top defenceman there.
Let him play huge minutes in every situation. For a young player at this stage, the best thing is often the most ice time, not the fanciest label.
Brzustewicz still has work to do before he’s a full-time NHLer. He needs to get faster, make quicker decisions with the puck, and get stronger.
Those are the kinds of things he can attack in the AHL. Then, when the NHL opportunity comes, he’ll be ready for it.
By February, the Flames can take another look at Whitecloud, Brzustewicz, and the rest of the picture, and decide where things stand from there.
In Other News...
Have The Flames Finally Built A Prospect Pool That Matters
Craig Conroys draft work has given the Flames something they have not had in a while: a prospect pool with real shape to it. After 33 picks since taking over as GM, Calgary can point to a deeper pipeline and, more importantly, one that looks better balanced than the thin system it inherited. The headliners are easy to spot, with Zayne Parekh leading the way and a cluster of young names behind him giving the organization a much healthier foundation.
The strength of the system is especially noticeable on defense, where the Flames have built real depth on the right side and may eventually have more players than spots if things break right. The forward group is less certain, though, and that is where the evaluation gets interesting for Calgary: there is plenty of support talent and some promising upside, but the question of whether the Flames have truly found a star-level forward remains open. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Face A Costly Shane Wright Dilemma They Cant Ignore
A young-centre search has become one of the more interesting threads around Calgary, and Shane Wright keeps surfacing as the kind of player who could fit if the price and the timing line up. Craig Conroy has been looking for help down the middle, and Wrights age and pedigree make him the sort of swing worth at least exploring, especially for a club trying to thread the needle between patience and progress.
The hesitation is obvious, though, because the Kraken forward has not yet delivered the kind of production that would make any trade feel clean or simple. Even so, a change of scenery can matter for a player still trying to establish himself, and that is what makes this a tricky Flames question: whether to gamble on upside now, or wait for a more proven answer to emerge later. [Read more 🡒]
Why The Flames Were So Eager To Land Jonathan Castagna
Jonathan Castagnas move to Calgary came together quickly after he finished his junior season at Cornell, and the Flames clearly saw enough in the center to move fast. He signed a three-year entry-level contract and arrives with the kind of profile teams like to bet on this time of year: a player whose game drew notice not just for what he did on the ice, but for the way he carried himself through camp and the draft process.
Calgarys interest was built on more than numbers, with the organization pointing to his work ethic, leadership and overall approach as reasons he fit their plans. Castagna, for his part, has spoken with real appreciation about his time at Cornell and a humble mindset as he starts the pro climb, which is part of what makes him such an intriguing addition for a team that has been looking to add dependable pieces with some upside. [Read more 🡒]