{"id":354292,"date":"2025-12-18T23:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/354292\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:45:07","slug":"flames-waive-dryden-hunt-recall-justin-kirkland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/354292\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames Waive Dryden Hunt, Recall Justin Kirkland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>3:48 p.m.:\u00a0The Flames later announced they\u2019ve recalled forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kirklju01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Justin Kirkland<\/a>\u00a0from the Wranglers, signaling Hunt will be heading down to the AHL tomorrow if he clears and should remain there through the holiday freeze, barring multiple injuries. The 29-year-old Kirkland was on the Flames\u2019 opening night roster but was waived in November after scoring one assist in nine games.<\/p>\n<p>In 14 games for the Wranglers since being demoted, he\u2019s rattled off five goals and two assists with a -8 rating. He\u2019s now set for another run at being Calgary\u2019s 13th forward. The Flames have an open roster spot, so they don\u2019t need to wait for Hunt to clear waivers before adding Kirkland to the roster.<\/p>\n<p>1:43 p.m.: The Flames placed forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/huntdr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dryden Hunt<\/a>\u00a0on waivers Thursday, according to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/2001730069329334643?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a>. The move will allow Calgary to assign him to the AHL before the holiday roster freeze goes into effect Saturday if he clears.<\/p>\n<p>This is Hunt\u2019s fifth time on waivers since the Flames acquired him from the Maple Leafs before the 2023 trade deadline, and his second time this season, so it seems likely he\u2019ll pass through without incident. Calgary hasn\u2019t leaned on the 30-year-old for much playing time over three separate recalls this season, as he\u2019s only entered the lineup twice. However, since he\u2019s now spent more than 30 days on the active roster since clearing waivers during training camp, he now needs them again to return to the minors.<\/p>\n<p>While the nine-year NHL vet may not be of much use to the Flames outside of serving as a no-fuss 13th forward, he\u2019s continued to light up the AHL. In 16 games for the Calgary Wranglers this season, the 6\u20190\u2033 winger has five goals, 13 assists, and 18 points to lead the team in points per game (1.13).<\/p>\n<p>Without Hunt rostered, Calgary won\u2019t be carrying any extra forwards. They can still add him back to the active roster during the freeze if they sustain an injury because not being able to ice 12 forwards counts as an emergency condition. They might also simply keep him on the roster if he clears tomorrow, resetting the 30-day clock until he needs them again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3:48 p.m.:\u00a0The Flames later announced they\u2019ve recalled forward\u00a0Justin Kirkland\u00a0from the Wranglers, signaling Hunt will be heading down to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,762,48,91612,86012,448,82,4584,48340],"class_list":["post-354292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-calgary-flames","tag-canada","tag-dryden-hunt","tag-justin-kirkland","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-transactions","tag-waivers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}