The Calgary Flames open their season on the road against the Vancouver Canucks. Eight players from last season are no longer a part of the organization, and seven players will make their official Flames debut.

Ryan Pike of FlamesNation wrote an article about how the opening roster has changed from previous years, and this season boasts arguably one of the most exciting opening rosters in recent memory.

This new-look team hopes to play a strong season with meaningful hockey deep into the spring months of 2019. What went into the composition of this iteration of the Flames, and where did the ex-players go?

2018-19

Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm

Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik

Dube–Ryan–Neal

Bennett-Jankowski-Czarnik

Giordano-Brodie

Hanifin-Hamonic

Valimaki-Stone

Smith

Rittich

2017-18

Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland

Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik

Versteeg-Bennett-Hathaway

Glass–Stajan–Brouwer

Giordano-Hamilton

Brodie-Hamonic

Bartkowski-Stone

Smith

Lack

The Ins

The Outs

The puck drops at 8 pm MT. It is definitely October and hockey is definitely back.

Header photo courtesy of Derek Wills.