A few days ago, Calgary Flames General Manager Craig Conroy made some concerning remarks about forward Jonathan Huberdeau. Specifically, that Huberdeau had suffered “a little bit of a setback” in his recovery from hip resurfacing surgery.
However, Conroy clarified his remarks to Sportnet’s Eric Francis. Correcting his previous comments, Conroy said, “It was a poor choice of words on my part.
It’s not that there was a setback. It was more the hope in me that he was going to be ready for camp.
What I meant was it was a setback that he won’t probably be ready for the first day of camp. That’s where I made my mistake.”
Clearly, that’s a much more positive outlook than Conroy originally implied. Regardless, the Flames will need to monitor Huberdeau’s recovery closely given the nature of the surgery.
For every Patrick Kane and John Klingberg, who have come back well from the surgery, players like Nicklas Bäckström and Carl Hagelin have had their careers prematurely ended by it.
Additional afternoon notes:
Over on the other side of the pond, a former NHLer has signed an extension in Sweden. According to a team announcement, the SHL’s Djurgårdens IF have signed forward Marcus Krüger to a one-year contract for the 2026-27 season.
Krüger spent nine years in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes, scoring 38 goals and 123 points in 520 games with a +5 rating, notably winning the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015.
Back to Calgary, the Flames are set to announce the signing of their emergency backup goaltender for the 2026-27 campaign. In Francis’ article, he shares that the Flames will sign 35-year-old netminder Dusty Nickel for the role.
Nickel has served as an EBUG before and has occasionally helped the team at practice.