After thinking about it, this is how I view the situation. I don't think the Flames are giving up on either of these players but I think they identified the best option for the team was to make the high risk high reward decision of putting them on waivers and hoping they don't get claimed.
For Kylington, I think they might have the perspective that the best thing for him would be AHL top pair defenseman. So put him on waivers on a day when a ton of other decent players are also on waivers and hope he slips through and can spend the entire year playing in all situations in Stockton.
For Ryan, I am assuming they might want to take a long look at Pelletier to start this season. He was very impressive at the WJC and stood out in positive ways outside of the scoresheet ie. forecheck back check and tenacity. And if the goal is to roll 4 lines and if the last of those four is centred by Bennett I could see them wanting to get some time in with Pelletier on Bennett's wing.
Something like this
Gaudreau - Monahan - Dube?
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Mangiapane
Lucic/ Simon - Backlund - Leivo/Simon
Pelletier - Bennett - Lucic/Simon/Leivo
So move Ryan to the taxi squad, hope he doesn't get claimed and leave him there for the first couple weeks of the season until you know for sure if Pelletier can stick. If he can, it's a good problem to have to be able to bring Ryan back up as injury replacement. If he doesn't stick then you bring Ryan up to play RW on that 4th line.
If Ryan does get claimed, we now have 3 mil in cap space that we can use to make a trade later in the season or potentially sign a cheap replacement off of some PTO in the league.
Thats how I see it anyways. High risk but if neither get claimed it could end up being a very beneficial move for the flames now and in the long run
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