The Flames have made the first round of cuts in camp, sending 13 players down to their respective minor and Junior league teams.
Six guys will be going to Quad Cities (Couture, Cracknell, Donati, Fraser, Hambly and Madill) while 7 others will be going back to Junior (Aulie, Armstrong, Carpentier, Puustinen, Renaud, Didiomete, Backlund), or Sweden.
No big surprises here. Looks like the club may be offering Donati an AHL contract at least. Most of the Junior kids are likely a couple years away from seriously contending for spot on the Flames, while the guys headed to the AHL are probably destined to remain there for the majority of their careers.
Some interesting names made it through the first cut, however:
(D) John Negrin was the Flames 3rd round pick this summer and it looks like he showed enough to stick around, even though he's one of the youngest defenders in camp. That's a good sign.
(D) Brad Cole was an undrafted signee who has also done enough to avoid the first chop. He's a big guy who put up some decent numbers as the captain of the Saskatoon Blades last season, so it'll be interesting to see how far he goes.
Wingers JD Watt and Brett Sutter are both Junior eligible this year, but may be fighting to avoid their final seasons in the WHL and land pro contracts instead. Both are tough, grinding wingers, so they may well end up fighting each other for a position in Quad Cities.
Training camp for the vets starts this Friday.
