Game Day: Nick Ritchie on second line, Walker Duehr sits for Flames against host Stars

Nick Ritchie is in, Walker Duehr is out and Calgary Flames' forward lines outside Mikael Backlund's have gone into a blender for tonight's game against the host Dallas Stars.

Ritchie, who was acquired by the Flames on Friday along with defenceman Troy Stecher at the NHL trade deadline, appeared at this morning's skate on a line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri.

It'll be his first game as a Flame after sitting out Saturday's shutout loss to the Minnesota WIld.

Dillon Dube was shuttled to centre the fourth line between Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis, while Jakob Pelletier was pushed up to the Flames' top line alongside Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli.

Steve's reaction on Friday to Nick Ritchie potentially being slotted on the second line (quite the premonition, by the way!) was primarily out of concern for Jakob Pelletier's place in the lineup. That was alleviated as he's been elevated to the top unit.   

Calgary Flames projected lines

Forward:

• Jakob Pelletier – Elias Lindholm – Tyler Toffoli
• Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Nick Ritchie
• Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
• Milan Lucic – Dillon Dube – Trevor Lewis

Defence:

• MacKenzie Weegar – Rasmus Andersson
• Noah Hanifin – Chris Tanev
• Nikita Zadorov – Troy Stecher

Goaltender:

• Jacob Markstrom

Dallas Stars projected lines:

Forward:

• Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Joe Pavelski
• Mason Marchment – Max Domi- Tyler Seguin
• Jamie Benn – Wyatt Johnston – Evgenii Dadonov
• Joel Kiviranta – Radek Faksa – Ty Dellandrea

Defence:

• Miro Heiskanen – Colin Miller
• Esa Lindell – Jani Hakanpaa
• Ryan Suter – Nils Lundkvist

Goaltender:

• Jake Oettinger