Justin Kirkland is out for the rest of the season after having surgery on his ACL.
The Flames shared this news on Wednesday, explaining that Kirkland had been having a great season with them. Before getting hurt, he played 21 games, scored two goals, and made six assists. Even though he was on the ice for less than ten minutes per game, he still managed to make a positive impact.
Standing tall at 6-foot-3 and weighing 183 pounds, Kirkland sometimes played center and won 54 out of 126 faceoffs. This gave him a win rate of 42.9%. He was known for his shootout skills too, scoring three times in four tries . His last game was against the Blue Jackets on November 29 when he got injured after just over a minute of playing time.
Unexpected Changes:
Kirkland started his career as a third-round pick by the Predators in 2014. Last summer, as an unrestricted free agent, he came back to the Flames where he’d spent several seasons in the minors from 2019 to 2022. Interestingly enough, next year will be his first without any minor-league games since turning pro! Fans might feel sad about this news because they were excited to see him play more NHL games.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to a Flames player; Anthony Mantha also had ACL surgery recently after scoring four goals and three assists in just thirteen games. With both players sidelined now due to injuries requiring surgeries like these ones did—it’s likely we’ll see some fresh faces soon such as Walker Duehr or Jakob Pelletier who are set debut tomorrow against Blues while Andrei Kuzmenko watches from press box instead!
What do you think about all these changes?
