Calgary Flames activate D Travis Hamonic from IR

The Calgary Flames announced Thursday morning that they have activated defenceman Travis Hamonic from injured reserve.

The HaHa pairing is back! The Calgary Flames announced on Thursday that they have activated defenceman Travis Hamonic from injured reserve. Hamonic suffered a facial fracture in the season-opener against the Vancouver Canucks. Erik Gudbranson put somewhat of a dirty hit on rookie Dillon Dube at the start of the game and, after some words exchanged between Hamonic and Gudbranson, Hamonic decided it wasn’t enough and the two went at it a few minutes later.

During the fight, it’s apparent when Hamonic suffered the fracture. Hamonic is also not quite in Gudbranson’s weight class, so it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. I’m all for defending your teammates, especially the rookies, but the words exchanged should have been enough. Dube was fine and there was no need for the fight.

The good news from all this is that it gave Rasmus Andersson the chance to prove himself, and oh boy has he. If Hamonic is in the lineup tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s projected that Andersson will be on the top-pairing alongside Mark Giordano, with the second pairing as Hamonic and Noah Hanifin, and the third pairing as Michael Stone and TJ Brodie. Meaning rookie Juuso Valimaki could be a health-scratch tonight.

Valimaki has also definitely proved himself – more than Stone and even Brodie that he deserves to be in the lineup. However, based on who’s getting the higher pay, it’s clear why Valimaki’s a scratch over Stone. In a perfect world, Stone wouldn’t even be a Flame anymore (Sorry Mike).

Since the Flames are activating Hamonic off IR, they will need to send someone down to the AHL, and it will most likely be Anthony Peluso. To be blunt, he’s quite useless. He’s been in the lineup twice this year and both times were against “tough” teams. And even then, he spent about five minutes in each game.