He’s back.
On Monday, Andrew Mangiapane was a full participant in practice after being held out of group skates for the first four days of training camp. The winger, who signed a three-year extension with the club in the off-season, was sidelined with a minor lower body injury, prompting the club to take a cautious approach to his first team skate of the year.
Skating alongside Nazem Kadri and Matthew Phillipshe showed no signs of rust in the up-tempo 45-minute practice.
“It felt good to get out there with the rest of the guys,” he said afterwards. “Obviously I’ve been kind of rehabbing some injuries that happened in the summer there but it was nothing serious. It just felt good to get out there, get moving again and play hockey.
“Now it’s just kind of getting the rust off and getting back up to game speed, getting that practice work in and hopefully getting into some exhibition games.”
Video: “It felt good to get out there and get moving again.”
While there is still a lot to be determined ahead of the Oct. 13 home-opener, Mangiapane’s style of game could very well be the perfect fit for Kadri’s wing and he’s looking forward to seeing how he fits with the pivot as camp rolls along.
“Obviously he’s a great player. We skated a little bit together as well this summer, both being from the Toronto area,” Mangiapane said. “He’s skilled, he’s a winner, so it’s exciting times. We’ll see what happens but obviously he brings a lot of experience and he’s a very skilled player.
“He could work well with a lot of guys on our team. He’s that type of player that when you play with him, he makes other people around him better.”
The 26-year-old is coming off a career-year in which he scored 35 goals and put up 55 points in 82 regular-season games. Reflecting on his 2021-22 campaign, he is confident he can take his game to another level this season.
“I’m planning just to play the same way that I have been. That’s my mentality going into this camp – keep growing as a player and as an individual, just help out the team however I can.”
Practice Notes
Group 1 Lines
Jonathan Huberdeau – Elias Lindholm – Tyler Toffoli
Dillon Dube – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Cody Eakin – Connor Zary – Sonny Milano
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Walker Duehr
Group 1 Pairings
MacKenzie Weegar – Christopher Tanev
Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson
Jeremy Poirier – Colton Poolman
Group 1 Goaltenders
Dan Vladar
Oscar Dansk
Group 2 Lines
Andrew Mangiapane – Nazem Kadri – Matthew Phillips
Jakob Pelletier – Adam Ruzicka – Adam Klapka
Milan Lucic – Kevin Rooney – Trevor Lewis
Mitch McLain – Ben Jones – Cole Schwindt
Alex Gallant
Group 2 Pairings
Nikita Zadorov – Nicolas Meloche
Juuso Valimaki – Michael Stone
Dennis Gilbert – Nick DeSimone
Chris Tanev (skated in both groups)
Group 2 Goaltenders
Jacob Markstrom
Dustin Wolf
Up next
The Flames pre-season schedule continues on Tuesday when they take on the Kraken in Seattle at 8 pm MT. The game will be streamed on CalgaryFlames.com in the Canadian broadcast region.
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