Calgary Flames where are they now: #55 Shane O’Brien

There are 55 days until the season starts! Let’s look at where former Calgary Flames player, Shane O’Brien, is now.

There are less than two months left until the hockey season starts, which seems unreal seeing how Calgary’s going through a bit of a heat wave right now. It feels weird that we could get snow in a matter of weeks. With 55 days left until the season starts, let’s take a look at where a former Calgary Flames player is up to these days.

Shane O’Brien, who wore #55 for the Flames, and whose birthday is also today, played just one season for the Flames quite late in his NHL career. It was much more recent than the other players we’ve been talking about. Since leaving the Flames in 2014, he signed a PTO with the Florida Panthers and later signed a one-year contract with them, but spent the majority of the time in the AHL.

Following that year, he spent a full year in the AHL with the Anaheim Ducks‘ farm team. Not exactly the way he wanted to end his NHL career with the Ducks, seeing how that’s the team he started his career with. But he’ll have to move on.

That year was hard enough for him to garner any type of interest from any team, so you can imagine that it was even harder for the ageing defenceman. So, not playing hockey with any team for about half a year, he signed a contract with HPK of the Finnish league Liiga and played with them for the remainder of their season.

Last season, O’Brien remained in Europe and spent the season playing for EHC LIWEST Linz of the EBEL (Austrian league). They made it to the semi-finals but lost to the EC Red Bull Salzburg. O’Brien signed a one-year contract and doesn’t appear to be on the team’s roster for the 2018-19 season. It’s hard to say whether this was his final hockey season ever as a player, or if he has plans not yet known.

Whatever he does, happy 35th birthday, Shane!