The Calgary Flames are one player lighter as they gear up for the 2024-25 NHL season.
Today, it was announced that the team had lost Cole Schwindt on waivers to the Vegas Golden Knights, one of two waiver claims for the 2023 Stanley Cup champions.
The Vegas scouting department clearly was honing in on their Alberta budget this weekend, as they also managed to pick up Raphael Lavoie from the Edmonton Oilers.
Schwindt had just signed a new deal with the Flames but failed to make the roster out of camp and had run out of waiver exemption status.
The 2019 first-round draft pick Jakob Pelletier and goaltender Devin Cooley were able to clear waivers in the process, with all 31 other teams passing on claiming either of them. With all 32 NHL teams looking to round out their rosters, the final few days before the regular season begins is always a chaotic time for the roster-claiming process.
Schwindt was a third-round pick by the Florida Panthers in 2019 and moved to Calgary as part of the blockbuster deal that saw Matthew Tkachuk traded for Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar in 2022.
He appeared in just four games at the NHL level last season, as well as another 66 AHL games with the Calgary Wranglers, where he scored 36 points (14 goals and 22 assists).
We’ll see if he’s able to stick around longer with Vegas, or if he ends up finding himself back on the waiver wire sooner rather than later, and possibly back in the AHL once again.
Calgary themselves did not make any subsequent roster claims.
The Flames are just two days away from beginning their regular season. They’ll get things underway on Wednesday evening at 8 MT, when they take on the Canucks at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.
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