The Calgary Flames are in Seattle tonight to play the Kraken in what should be an interesting showdown of young players trying to show they belong in an NHL line. For the Flames, Cody Eakin, Sonny Milano and Dillon Dube are the only skaters to have played more than 100 NHL games. The Kraken, meanwhile, have several veterans including a near fully stocked defence.

Let’s take a look at the lineups.

Dube-Eakin-Duehr
Ruzicka-Zary-Milano
Pelletier-Jones-Phillips
Gallant-Schwindt-Klapka

Mackey-Meloche
Gilbert-DeSimone
Valimaki-Kuznetsov

Vladar
Dansk

Here is the Kraken lineup courtesy of Mike Benson.


Jared McCann – Yanni Gourde – Karson Kuhlman
Jaden Schwartz – Shane Wright – Jordan Eberle
Kole Lind – Alexander True – John Hayden
Jagger Firkus – Andrew Poturalski – Daniel Sprong

Vince Dunn – Will Borgen
Jamie Oleksiak – Cale Fleury
Carson Soucy – Gustav Olofsson

Wright
Tonight will be a first look for most Flames fans at the prospect that is Shane Wright. The projected first overall pick fell to fourth at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft and will now form a 1-2 center tandem with Matthew Beniers — that is, if he can force his way onto the roster as an 18 year old. Yanni Gourde and Alexander Wennberg are seasoned NHL veterans and the latter has a history of trending downwards when put in a bottom six role.

Tonight Wright centers the Kraken’s two most offensive wingers. Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz. This will be an interesting situation to follow.


Dubé
Dillon Dubé must be feeling some déjà vu. He was one of the sole veterans sent out to Kent, Washington to play a preseason game for the Flames last season. He’ll be playing left wing to Cody Eakin and Walker Duehr. Strange line.


Big Fish
While Adam Klapka’s .5 fights per game through the Pentincton Young Stars Classic and one preseason game is encouraging, tonight’s Kraken lineup features the 6’7” 255lb Jamie Oleksiak. The massive Czech would do well to avoid that matchup. Alex Gallant is in the lineup and is likely to be the first to drop mitts.


Meanwhile..
The rest of the Flames practiced today in Calgary. Not too many surprises — with one exception.

Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli
Mangiapane-Kadri/Backlund-Coleman
Lucic-Rooney-Lewis
Sutter-Bishop-McLain

Hanifin-Andersson
Zadorov-Weegar
Poirier-Tanev
Solovyov-Stone

Markstrom
Wolf

A defensive pairing of Poirier and Tanev piques some curiosity. It’s surely a placeholder until Kylington returns, but nonetheless would be interesting to see in action against the Oilers tomorrow. Time will tell whether we get to see it.

Game time is 8:00pm mst.


Trevor Neufeld


@Trevor_Neufeld

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