{"id":506960,"date":"2026-03-17T00:27:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/506960\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T00:27:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:27:52","slug":"flames-yan-kuznetsov-out-day-to-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/506960\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames’ Yan Kuznetsov Out Day-To-Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Calgary Flames will need to shake up their blue-line before Monday night\u2019s matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. Defenseman Yan Kuznetsov<\/a> is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury, head coach Ryan Huska<\/a> told Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960<\/a>. Kuznetsov filled a second-pair role in Calgary\u2019s Saturday night loss to the New York Islanders. He and partner Zach Whitecloud<\/a> were the only Flames pairing to record a plus-minus and outshoot their opponents in that matchup.<\/p>\n

Kuznetsov, in his rookie season, has grown into a bigger role in the lineup following the departure<\/a> of Rasmus Andersson<\/a>. He has now played 10 games with at least 20 minutes of ice time, since Andersson\u2019s trade \u2013 bringing Kuznetsov up to 33 such games on the year. His 20:09 in average ice time ranks fourth among current Flames defenders.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Russian has racked up four goals, 12 points, and a minus-nine in 52 games this season. He is the second-highest scoring defenseman on the current Flames roster, behind Kevin Bahl<\/a> who has 16 points. That\u2019s an impressive jump for Kuznetsov, who spent the entire 2024-25 season with the AHL\u2019s Calgary Wranglers. He totaled 21 points in 72 AHL games last season, bringing his career totals in the minors up to 53 points in 216 games. Kuznetsov also recorded two goals in 10 AHL games to start this season, before earning a full-time call-up in early-November<\/a>. He has played in 52 consecutive NHL games since that recall, a streak that will end on Monday.<\/p>\n

Kuznetsov\u2019s absence will force fellow rookie Zayne Parekh<\/a> up the lineup. Parekh has just two points, both assists, in 21 NHL games this season. It has been a quiet year despite the 19 year old scoring five points in four AHL games throughout the season. A bump into the top-four should represent a chance to find his scoring behind Calgary\u2019s top forward lines \u2013 though the Flames will need to lean on Whitecloud and Bahl to make up for Kuznetsov\u2019s physical role.<\/p>\n

This move will also promote another rookie, Hunter Brzustewicz<\/a>, into the lineup. Brzustewicz recorded 15 minutes of ice time, and three shots on goal, in Calgary\u2019s March 12th win over the New Jersey Devils. That was his first NHL appearance since late-January. In total, he has scored two points in 19 NHL games and 13 points in 34 AHL games this season. He too will sit in a prove-it role as Calgary looks for who can replace one of their most impactful rookies this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Calgary Flames will need to shake up their blue-line before Monday night\u2019s matchup against the Detroit Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,402,4,13949,12000],"class_list":["post-506960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary-flames","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgaryflames","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-injury","tag-nhl","tag-rookies","tag-yan-kuznetsov"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116241688433916802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}