Calgary Flames Split Squad Storylines

The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers kick off their preseasons tonight in a pair of split squad games that have some compelling storylines to follow.

In Calgary

The YYC-based game will feature most of the big dogs, as well as a sprinkling of young guns. Lets take a look at the projected lineup.

Gridin-Kadri-Coronato
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Honzek-Kirkland-Stromgren
Suniev-Morton-Basha

Cicek-Andersson
Hanley-Weegar
Bean-Parekh

Cooley
Say

Burning Ascent

Matvei Gridin will ride shotgun for Nazem Kadri and Matthew Coronato tonight. He also gets to run on the first powerplay unit with Coronato, Kadri, Connor Zary, and MacKenzie Weegar.

Things are moving quickly for the 19 year old. His promotion is due to Jonathan Huberdeau taking the game off for maintenance and his normal practice line is with Dryden Hunt and Rory Kerins (implying that he’ll likely start in the AHL) but—it’s certainly notable that the team is giving the 28^th overall pick in 2024 every chance possible to impress as a top six winger.

Started From the Bottom

It appears that rookie Zayne Parekh will start his pro career on a pairing with Jake Bean.

Head coach Ryan Huska is known to shorten the bench, so perhaps this isn’t exactly a surprise. To his credit, Bean has been lauded for his conditioning so far this camp.

Parekh and Aydar Suniev will get reps on the second powerplay unit.

Showdown Across Games

Devin Cooley gets the start and will go the distance in Calgary. Ivan Prosvetov will get the same in Edmonton. Let the backup derby begin!

In Edmonton

Farabee-Frost-Frk
Lomberg-Pospisil-Klapka
Hunt-Kerins-Ciona
Battaglia-Bishop-Bell

Bahl-Hurtig
Kuznetsov-Pachal
Solovyov-Miromanov

Prosvetov
Sergeev

Sorry Man

Some may remember when Jonathan Huberdeau, Anthony Mantha and a group of lesser known players showed up in Edmonton last season and laid a beatdown on Connor McDavid and most of the Oilers starting lineup.

Screenshot courtesy of ESPN.

This year’s B-squad is even less known. It’s worth noting that the bottom nine forwards are all bigger players. It’s a shame that the Oilers are putting this one behind a paywall.

To be frank, it’s pretty wild that the Oilers are finding a way to charge over $250 for some lower bowl seats. Neither the organization nor any members of their local media have announced projected lineups for either game.