While the Flames officially lost one forward on Monday, they'll return a pretty important one to their lineup.
Michael Frolik is expected back for Calgary back against the Golden Knights when each team begins its schedule coming out of the All-Star Break Tuesday. Frolik has not played since Dec. 28 after sustaining a broken jaw in a game against the San Jose Sharks when he was struck in the face by a Brent Burns shot.
"He'll be a game player (Tuesday)," head coach Glen Gulutzan said following practice on Monday. ""We've passed most of the checkmarks that the docs needed us to go through as far as the healing of the jaw and stuff so you can expect [Frolik] in (Tuesday)."
The 29-year-old forward missed 12 games due to the injury, leaving what was one of the most dominant lines in hockey next to Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund.
"I'm definitely excited, it's never fun for a player to be injured," Frolik said. "It's obviously never easy to [spend] a month away from the game but I think I had a few good practices. [I'll] just try to keep it simple at the start, I think, keep it short shifts; keep it short and keep it simple and go out there and try to bring a little bit more energy and hopefully it's going to be good."
The Flames enter play Tuesday in third place in the Pacific Division, one point behind the San Jose Sharks, and also 10 points behind the Golden Knights for first. Tuesday marks the first game for Calgary since it officially assigned forward Jaromir Jagr to Kladno of the Czech League.