The Calgary Flames assigned Michael Benning and five others to their AHL affiliate Saturday night, trimming the roster days before opening night.
Dryden Hunt, Ben Jones, Jake Livingstone, Sam Morton and William Stromgren are also headed down.
The group includes two defensemen and four forwards.
The Benning move stands out. The defenseman logged 22:11 in Thursday's 4-3 shootout loss in Seattle, putting three shots on goal.
That's heavy ice time for a preseason game, and it still wasn't enough to stick.
Why burn that many minutes on a player you're sending down? Sometimes a camp look is exactly that, a look.
Jake Livingstone skated 17:37 on the back end that night and went minus-1.
Sam Morton and William Stromgren head to the AHL with Craig Conroy's cuts
Up front, Morton put four shots on goal and picked up an assist in 18:38.
Stromgren set up a power-play goal, and Hunt added an assist of his own. Jones played 18:02 with three shots.
Cutting that group isn't a scandal, but it's a gamble. Calgary scored once in Saturday's 4-1 loss in Edmonton, so the depth up front isn't exactly overflowing.
Dustin Wolf faced 28 shots in that one and stopped 24.
Sending productive depth players down while the scoring dries up is like tossing the spare batteries right before a blackout.
Ryan Huska's group finished the preseason 1-2-1.
Craig Conroy has money tied up elsewhere. Jonathan Huberdeau carries a $10,500,000 cap hit, and Wolf sits at $7,500,000.
The Flames open the regular season Thursday at home against Seattle, the same team that beat them in a shootout this week.
Then it's a trip to Vancouver on Saturday.
Benning and company won't be far away if the lineup sputters. And after Saturday in Edmonton, Conroy might be making that call sooner than he'd like.
Did the Flames cut too much scoring depth before opening night?
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