Calgary Flames activate Jacob Markstrom from injury reserve, send Dustin Wolf and Ilya Solovyov to the Wranglers

Both Markstrom (finger) and blueliner Chris Tanev (upper body) participated in morning skate on Saturday before the Flames’ meeting with Tampa Bay, per Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, with head coach Ryan Huska indicating both players were close to returning.

Markstrom required a roster spot to return to the active roster, and sending the waiver exempt Wolf (the team’s third-string goaltender) opened that spot. Tanev’s already on the active roster, with the team carrying eight defencemen, and the Flames have preferred to carry one extra healthy blueliner to balance playing time, injury wiggle room and cap space. The Flames had two waiver exempt defenders – Solovyov and Jordan Oesterle – and moving Solovyov down keeps Oesterle up, for now. (Oesterle had two assists against Tampa Bay.)

Wolf was called up on Dec. 5 and made three appearances during his call-up, going 1-1-1 with a 3.31 goals against average and .892 save percentage. Solovyov was called up on Dec. 1, playing four games with two assists and an even plus/minus.

The moves put the Flames at 22 players on their active roster (two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 13 forwards) and put them $549,167 under their accruable cap space limit (ACSL), the cap number they need to get under to accumulate cap savings while they have players on the long-term injury reserve.

The Flames are back in action on Monday when they host the Florida Panthers.