- Flames sign Alex Nylander to a one-year, two-way deal worth $850K
- The move comes a month after he joined Calgary on a PTO
- Read below for his AHL numbers and where he fits
Alex Nylander’s tryout in Calgary just became a real contract.
The Flames signed the 28-year-old forward to a one-year, two-way deal on Friday, converting the professional tryout agreement he’d been playing on since late August. The deal carries an $850,000 cap hit at the NHL level.
Calgary called it a homecoming:
Nylander was born in Calgary while his father, Michael Nylander, played for the Flames. He grew up in Sweden but got his shot to come home when the Flames brought him to training camp on a PTO a month ago. We covered that arrival back in August.
He made his case in two preseason outings, picking up an assist in Thursday’s 4-3 shootout loss to Seattle. That was enough for the Flames to make it official before their preseason wraps up this weekend.
The AHL is where Nylander has actually thrived. He put up a career-best 53 points on 24 goals and 29 assists in 65 games with the Toronto Marlies last season, then added six goals in 24 playoff games as Toronto won the Calder Cup.
Here’s the full breakdown on the numbers he brings:
Selected eighth overall by Buffalo in the 2016 draft, Nylander has bounced through five organizations and appeared in just 126 NHL games, with 25 goals and 49 points. He’s the younger brother of Toronto’s William Nylander, and this isn’t his first time around Calgary’s rink either, given his dad’s history with the franchise.
Nylander is expected to open the season with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. Whether he sees real NHL minutes beyond that comes down to how thin Calgary’s forward depth chart gets, but he’s coming off a season where he proved he can still produce.
