CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Radim Zohorna thought his buddy was joking with him when he got the phone call.
It was Monday afternoon and Zohorna was on his way to the airport in Pittsburgh, where he would meet the rest of his teammates and fly to Detroit for that evening's preseason game.
Or so he thought.
His phone rang on the way there, and it was his friend letting him know that he saw a tweet saying the Flames had claimed Zohorna off waivers.
Zohorna looked at the clock and was a little suspicious. The waiver period runs until 2 p.m., and it was only a couple of minutes past that deadline when his friend had called him. Surely, his friend was just pulling a prank.
Once Zohorna realized that his friend was telling the truth, he was thrilled.
It wasn't that he wanted out of Pittsburgh. But the Penguins' roster and salary cap limitations had Zohorna destined for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Calgary putting in a waiver claim meant that the Flames see him as an NHL player. The Flames have to keep Zohorna in the NHL, or they risk losing him right back to the Penguins on the waiver wire.
"I was happy, I was really happy," Zohorna told reporters in Winnipeg after his first morning skate as a Flame on Wednesday. "I wanted to get an opportunity with a team and just be myself. I know I can be an NHL player full-time. Now I'm here, and I'm so happy I'm here."
Zohorna will make his Flames debut in their preseason game against the Jets on Wednesday evening. He skated on the left wing of the Flames' third line at the morning skate alongside Adam Ruzicka and Blake Coleman. He said after the skate that he's looking to "play hard, physically, use my size and speed" in order to earn his spot on the Flames' roster.
Zohorna sounded confident that he could earn that spot based on his limited NHL action over the last two seasons -- eight games in 2020-21 and 17 games last season.
"I had a few games last year and my first year and I think I did very well," he said. "I just didn't have so much time and so much games to prove myself. I hope now I can prove myself here. ... I had a really good summer and I think I had a good camp in (Pittsburgh). There just wasn't room for me. So now I will have the opportunity to make the team here and play with these guys. So it'll be fun."
He's already made a good impression in the Flames' locker room. Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov previously had the nickname "Big Z," the nickname that Zohorna also had in the Penguins organization. With Zohorna being 6-foot-6, it was decided by his new Flames teammates that he was the Bigger Z, and had the right to keep his nickname in the move.
Major controversy at #Flames morning skate in Winnipeg, where teammates were trying to tell Nikita Zadorov that his nickname is now 'Little Z.' Apparently they've decided that Radim Zohorna is taller. Hence, a new 'Big Z.' Developing story.
— Wes Gilbertson (@WesGilbertson) October 5, 2022
