The Calgary Flames did, indeed, lose a forward prospect on the waiver wire Monday.
Just not the guy that everybody has been talking about.
Jakob Pelletier was not claimed. That is the good news. A first-round pick in 2019, Pelletier will remain in the organization, dispatched to start the season with the AHL’s Wranglers and challenged to prove that he should be at the top of the list of call-up candidates.
Cole Schwindt, meanwhile, is headed to Sin City. The 23-year-old pivot was plucked by the Vegas Golden Knights, further thinning the Flames’ depth chart at centre.
“That’s a tough one,” acknowledged head coach Ryan Huska of Monday’s waiver claim. “The unfortunate thing is you can’t keep everybody. As much as you would like to, sometimes when they get to a certain age, this is what happens. So I wish (Schwindt) the very best.
“It hurts for us, for sure, because he’s a right-handed centreman and that’s something we don’t have … So it’s a tough loss for us when you look at the depth of our team. But at the same time, I’m hopeful that he gets a great opportunity and he goes on to some good things.”
The hope is Pelletier, 23, will also go on to good things — both at the Saddledome and eventually at Scotia Place. As Huska stressed during an interview Monday morning on Sportsnet 960 The Fan: “I still think there’s a really good player in there that is going to be an important part of our team.”
The first step for Pelletier, who was once considered Calgary’s most promising forward prospect but had his development stalled last season by a pair of injuries to the same shoulder, is to rediscover his game with the Wranglers. The energetic left-winger didn’t manage a single point in his five exhibition outings this fall and was bumped off of the projected roster by the emergence of Sam Honzek and Adam Klapka.
Pelletier should, for the foreseeable future, be skating in a top-line role with the farm team. He’ll be trying to do exactly what Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil accomplished in 2023 — earn a call-up with a scorching start and then make it impossible to send you back to the minors.
“He should be a little bit upset, for sure, as he goes down but he has to take it as, ‘OK, there’s certain things that I have to get better at and I have to improve upon if I’m going to be considered a full-time NHL player,’ ” Huska said of Pelletier, who has so far logged 37 career appearances at the highest level. “And now he has the opportunity to go down there and do that. His attitude, I don’t really worry about that at all with him because he has a great personality and I don’t think you really see much change in him, good or bad, in regards to how he handles himself.
“I think he’s going to put in the work to get himself back there.”
Calgary’s third-string netminder, Devin Cooley, also cleared waivers Monday and was assigned to the Wranglers.
Schwindt spent two seasons in the Flames’ system, arriving as part of the blockbuster trade with the Florida Panthers in the summer of 2022, although he played just four NHL games over that span.