The waiver wire officially opened yesterday in the National Hockey League, as we’re now 12 days away from the beginning of the 2015-16 season. That means that the Calgary Flames will need to expose a bunch of players to waivers for them to go down.

So who needs to clear waivers to leave town, and who doesn’t?

Here’s a handy rundown (ignoring Blair Riley and Dustin Stevenson, who don’t have contracts):

NO WAIVERS

Kenny Agostino

Bill Arnold

Sam Bennett (but can only go to the OHL)

Johnny Gaudreau (has 68 games of exemption left)

Markus Granlund

Garnet Hathaway

Morgan Klimchuk

Emile Poirier

Bryce van Brabant

Rasmus Andersson (can only go to the OHL)

Ryan Culkin

Keegan Kanzig

Brett Kulak

Oliver Kylington

Kenney Morrison

Jakub Nakladal

Patrick Sieloff

Tyler Wotherspoon

Jon GIllies

Mason McDonald (can only go to the QMJHL)

Don’t worry: they are NOT sending Johnny Gaudreau to the minors.

WAIVERS

Many of these players will NEVER be exposed to the waiver wire.

Mikael Backlund

Brandon Bollig

Lance Bouma

Paul Byron

Joe Colborne

Turner Elson

Micheal Ferland

Michael Frolik

Derek Grant

Jiri Hudler

David Jones

Josh Jooris

Sean Monahan

Mason Raymond

Drew Shore

Matt Stajan

T.J. Brodie

Deryk Engelland

Mark Giordano

Dougie Hamilton

Kris Russell

Ladislav Smid

Dennis Wideman

Ryan Wilson (if they sign him)

Jonas Hiller

Joni Ortio

Karri Ramo

PLAYERS OF NOTE

The Flames have six prospects that are waiver exempt this season, but will require waivers next year – meaning these are the players the club basically needs to make a decision on (one way or another) this season. In other words: I’d expect to see them up in the NHL during the season so that the Flames can figure out if they want to keep them (or trade them while they still have waiver exemption left so that another team can try them out without fear of losing them).

The six are: Kenny Agostino, Bill Arnold, Markus Granlund, Jakub Nakladal, Bryce van Brabant and Tyler Wotherspoon. I’m not sure if van Brabant is really a prospect of note anymore, but the other five have all looked good here and there during the pre-season and prospect camp and are probably names that management are curious about.

I’d be shocked if those five players aren’t among the last few bodies in camp simply so that the Flames can get an extended up-close look at them.





