Flames' Kylington unable to participate in camp after medical testing
The excitement heading into Calgary Flames training camp regarding the return of Oliver Kylington was put on hold this morning.
The Flames sent out a media advisory this morning regarding Kylington, saying that the Swedish blue liner won’t be available to begin training camp.
“Following yesterday’s medical and fitness testing, it was determined that Oliver is unable to participate in the opening of training camp today,” the statement read. “As this is a personal matter, no further information will be provided.”
After a breakout year in 2021-22, Kylington missed all of last season due to personal matters. The 26-year-old has since opened up about some of the mental health struggles he was going through, which resulted in him opting to take the season off.
āIt was mental and psychological problems I suffered from,ā Kylington said in Swedish (translated with Google Translate). āI think Iām dealing with the problem like maybe everyone else does, by just sweeping it under the rug and putting the lid on, but for me, it led to mental illness, and I felt very bad about how I handled my problems and almost hit the wall and felt that enough is enough.ā
After bouncing around between the NHL and AHL for parts of six seasons, Kylington finally found his footing with the Flames two seasons ago. He was able to register career highs across the board, scoring nine goals and 31 points in 73 games while averaging north of 18 minutes in ice time.
While prone to mistakes in the defensive zone from time to time, Kylington’s elite skating ability paired with his solid offensive instincts made him quite valuable to the Flames, particularly when paired with shutdown defenceman Chris Tanev.
As the statement reads, there will be no further comment from the Flames at this time. Whether or not we will see Kylington back on the ice in the near future remains unknown at this point in time.