The Calgary Flames have made the final cuts and have announced the roster for their opening game on Sunday night.
I’m happy to see the usual names in the roster, though there are a couple nice surprises… and a couple names I’d rather not see.
After what seems like too long in the AHL, Leland Irving has been named as Miikka Kiprusoff’s backup. This is a good thing. Also on the positive side of things are Blair Jones, who missed a few too many games late last season with a broken ankle, and Sven Baertschi, who contributed 3 goals during his 5-game stint with the Flames in 2011-2012.
Known as a hard working, fan favourite when he was in Montreal, Steve Bégin will also be making an appearance after signing a 1-year, 2-way deal with the Flames. I’m still on the fence about this one, but if he doesn’t perform, the saving grace is that his contract is cheap and is also 2-way, allowing for an easy swap with one of the youngsters who have been assigned to the Abbotsford Heat.
Names that I’m not stoked to see include my usual suspects, a.k.a. overpaid and starts with the letter “s”: Sarich, Stajan, and Stempniak. If it weren’t for these three guys, we’d have an extra 8 million dollars of cap space, and 3 roster spots for guys who can skate fast and/or score goals. There’s a few others who could possibly join this list, but they aren’t quite there yet. Hopefully by the end of this season they won’t be on it.
| # | PLAYER NAME | POS. |
| 11 | Backlund, Mikael | LW |
| 47 | Baertschi, Sven | C |
| 25 | Begin, Steve | C |
| 4 | Bouwmeester, Jay | RD |
| 7 | Brodie, T.J. | LD |
| 44 | Butler, Chris | LD |
| 13 | Cammalleri, Michael | LW |
| 17 | Comeau, Blake | RW |
| 5 | Giordano, Mark | LD |
| 20 | Glencross, Curtis | LW |
| 51 | Horak, Roman | C |
| 12 | Iginla, Jarome | RW |
| 37 | Irving, Leland | G |
| 15 | Jackman, Tim | RW |
| 19 | Jones, Blair | C |
| 34 | Kiprusoff, Miikka | G |
| 6 | Sarich, Cory | RD |
| 27 | Smith, Derek | LD |
| 18 | Stajan, Matt | C |
| 22 | Stempniak, Lee | RW |
| 40 | Tanguay, Alex | LW |
| 26 | Wideman, Dennis | RD |
| NON ROSTER – Injury | ||
| 33 | Babchuk, Anton | RD |
| 10 | Cervenka, Roman | C |
| NON ROSTER – Bereavement | ||
| 24 | Hudler, Jiri | RW |
Greg is the founder of Red Mile Blog has been following the Flames through good times and bad since they arrived in Calgary in the early 80s. He has written hundreds of articles on the Flames since 2005 and considers himself an expert on hockey inconsistency and frustration. He shoots right and usually plays defence, but has been known to jump up in the rush. He is a 2-time CAHL men's league champion and knows the sweet taste of beer from a Cup.
