Calgary Flames Waive Twitter Kingpin, Set Opening Roster

Jordan Henry (Lets Go Amerks/flickr)

Twitter was ablaze with sorrow on Tuesday morning as the Calgary Flames placed defenseman Jordan Henry on waivers, presumably for the purposes of sending him to the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Heat.

Henry, 24, joined the Flames this summer via a trade with the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Keith Seabrook. Neither player appeared to be in their original team’s plans, with Henry spending the entire 2010-11 season with the Kontinental Hockey League’s Minsk Dynamo club on a restricted free agency hold-out. Henry previously spent the first three seasons of his pro career in the Panthers minor ranks with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades and the AHL’s Rochester Americans.

Henry suited up for three pre-season games with Calgary, earning a plus-two rating and an assist. He also became somewhat of a cult figure among Flames fans online, particularly for his use of Twitter. Tweeting under the username jhank86, Henry has amassed over 850 followers and a slew of tweets on topics ranging from the Battle of Alberta to his facial hair.

The move leaves the Flames with 22 healthy bodies (two goalies, seven defensemen and 13 forwards) in camp, along with four injured players:

Goaltenders Miikka Kiprusoff and Henrik Karlsson
Defensemen Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Giordano, Cory Sarich, Derek Smith, Scott Hannan, Anton Babchuk and Chris Butler
Forwards Niklas Hagman, Jarome Iginla, Olli Jokinen, Tim Jackman, Tom Kostopoulos, Rene Bourque, Matt Stajan, Curtis Glencross, Lee Stempniak, Pierre-Luc Lectourneau-Leblond, David Moss, Alex Tanguay and Roman Horak
The Flames website currently identifies blueliner Brett Carson (back) and forwards Brendan Morrison (knee), Raitis Ivanans (post-concussion syndrome) and Mikael Backlund (hand) as injured, while forward Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond will be suspended for the October 8 game against Pittsburgh

Backlund underwent surgery on a broken finger on Tuesday and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks. Morrison and Ivanans skated with the main group during the practice on Tuesday, as did captain Jarome Iginla, who has been battling back spasms since training camp opened.

The Flames open their 2011-12 regular season with a home date on Saturday night against Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The puck drops at 8 p.m. MT and the game can be seen on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.

Bio
Twitter
Google+
Latest Posts

Ryan Pike

Ryan Pike is a writer based in scenic Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He's presently a Contributing Editor and Calgary Flames Correspondent for The Hockey Writers, a contributing writer at Flames Nation, a columnist at Tough Talk MMA and a below-average golfer.