Calgary Flames recall defenceman Ilya Solovyov from the AHL’s Wranglers

The Calgary Flames have brought up one of their most promising young defencemen, at least for a little while. The club announced on Thursday morning that they’ve recalled defender Ilya Solovyov from the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

Solovyov, 23, is a left shot shutdown defender who was the Flames’ seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Since being drafted, he’s spent a season in the Kontinental Hockey League with Dynamo Minsk and two seasons in the Flames’ system with the Wranglers. He really had a big step forward in his game last season, serving as one half of a really strong shutdown pairing alongside Nick DeSimone. He has two points in four games to begin this AHL season, and he carries an $828,333 cap hit.

With Rasmus Andersson unavailable for the next two games, adding an extra blueliner makes a lot of sense for the Flames. It gives them two extra available skaters – a defender and a forward – in case they want to mix things up line-up wise, and if nothing else it’s a great reward for a young player who’s put in the work and progressed rather nicely.

With the call-up, the Flames’ active roster is now at 23 players – including Andersson, who’s suspended. The Flames’ total cap commitments are now $86,771,833 (between their active roster and three injured players). While not announced by the club, we’re presuming that Kevin Rooney has moved retroactively to the long-term injury reserve list to join Oliver Kylington (who was placed there to begin the season), which would increase the Flames’ available cap spending to $87,243,500 until one (or both) of those players are activated from LTIR. They have $471,667 left in that pool after recalling Solovyov, so any further additions would require them to flex Jakob Pelletier (and his $406,000 season-opening IR cap hit) to the LTIR.

The Flames are back in action on Thursday evening when they host the St. Louis Blues.

The Barn Burner Nation Vacation to Arizona presented by Alberta Blue Cross is HAPPENING from Jan 11-13th, 2024! Join the action for just $1,499/person! Your ticket includes round trip flights from Calgary x Arizona, hotels, transport and hockey game tickets! Get your tickets to the ultimate sports vacation before they sell out!