Jul. 2—GRAND FORKS — Colton Poolman is returning to the Calgary Flames organization.
The former East Grand Forks Senior High and UND defenseman has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Flames.
The two-way contract means his salary will depend on whether he’s in the NHL with the Flames or with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers.
Poolman’s NHL salary is $775,000. His AHL salary is $150,000 according to Ryan Pike of Flames Nation.
Poolman has spent his entire pro career in Calgary’s organization.
In 2020-21 and 2021-22, he played with Calgary’s top minor-league affiliate, the Stockton (Calif.) Heat. The Flames’ AHL affiliate moved to Calgary last season.
Poolman scored two goals and tallied 14 points in 64 games, while the Wranglers posted the AHL’s best regular-season record. They were eliminated by the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the Pacific Division Finals.
This is Poolman’s fourth-straight, one-year deal with Calgary.
He signed in 2021 and 2022 as a restricted free agent. On Saturday, Poolman became an unrestricted free agent for the first time.
Poolman had successful high school and college careers in Greater Grand Forks.
The 6-foot, 200-pound defender led the Green Wave to their first Minnesota boys state hockey championship in 2014.
After playing two seasons of junior hockey, he spent four seasons with the Fighting Hawks, wearing the captain’s ‘C’ in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
As a senior, UND won the Penrose Cup as National Collegiate Hockey Conference champions and was the No. 1-ranked team nationally in the Pairwise Rankings when the season shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Twenty-one former UND players are under NHL contracts for 2023-24 as of July 2.
They are Jacob Bernard-Docker (Ottawa), Brock Boeser (Vancouver), Drake Caggiula (Edmonton), Judd Caulfield (Anaheim), Derek Forbort (Boston), Rhett Gardner (Philadelphia), Tyson Jost (Buffalo), Matt Kiersted (Florida ), Tyler Kleven (Ottawa), Paul LaDue (NY Islanders), Brad Malone (Edmonton), Zane McIntyre (Minnesota), Brock Nelson (Islanders), TJ Oshie (Washington), Colton Poolman (Calgary), Tucker Poolman (Vancouver) , Jake Sanderson (Ottawa), Nick Schmaltz (Arizona), Cole Smith (Nashville), Troy Stecher (Arizona) and Christian Wolanin (Vancouver).
There are eight former UND players who are unrestricted free agents after being on NHL contracts last season: forward Collin Adams, goalie Aaron Dell, forward Grant Mismash, forward Zach Parise, forward Austin Poganski, goalie Adam Scheel, forward Jonathan Toews and forward Jasper Weatherby. .
A total of 40 former UND players are under pro contract for 2023-24.