Jonathan Huberdeau Relegated to the Bottom-Six After Dreadful Performances

Sportsnet's Calgary reporter Pat Steinberg reports that forward Jonathan Huberdeau will officially return to action tonight against the Los Angeles Kings after missing the team's last three games.

However, in a major twist, the Quebecer will officially be relegated to the third line of the Flames, a line that plays almost as many minutes per game as their fourth line.

After publicly criticizing Huberdeau in the media, Flames head coach Darryl Sutter put his money where his mouth is by making this controversial decision.

Having just signed a massive eight-year, $84 million contract with the Flames, it appears that the fire is already burning between Huberdeau and his coach.

The 29-year-old forward has just one goal and six points in 11 games, a stark contrast to last year with the Panthers in Florida, where he finished with a career-best 30 goals and 115 points.

Here are Sutter's trios:

Ruzicka-Lindholm-ToffoliLucic-Kadri-MangiapaneHuberdeau-Backlund-LewisColeman-Dube-Ritchie

Hanifin-AnderssonWeegar-TanevZadorov-DeSimone

It will be interesting to see Huberdeau's response to this situation, but let's just say the coach's message is clear.

On the other hand, putting him with Backlund and Lewis certainly won't help Huberdeau out of his slump.

If the situation doesn't get better soon, it could become very toxic for the Flames' number 10 and the organization could greatly regret the astronomical deal they offered him.

Credit: William Nadeau, Habs & NHL

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