He never left the province of Alberta, but Kris Versteeg has undergone a major change of scenery.
After spending all of training camp and the preseason in Edmonton on a PTO, Versteeg flipped the script on Tuesday by signing a one-year deal with the Calgary Flames.
Today, he found himself on Calgary’s top line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, ahead of tonight’s game where he and the Flames will face -- yup, the Edmonton Oilers.
The hope is that Versteeg, 30, can become something of a Jiri Hudler 2.0. In Hudler’s first year playing alongside Monahan and Gaudreau, he posted career highs across the board -- 31 goals, 76 points -- and captured the Lady Byng trophy.
Versteeg certainly has the potential to produce.
A four-time 20-goal scorer, he found the back of the net 15 times last year, split between Los Angeles and Carolina.
Gaudreau sounded excited about his new linemate.
"[Versteeg’s] skilled, he’s smart,” he said, per the Flames’ Twitter account. “Hopefully we can build some chemistry right away.”