Consistency pushes Frolik toward milestone
Flames winger becomes Mr. 700, but hopes to be Mr. 1,000 someday soon
Before or after practice, Michael Frolik can be found adjusting his skates.
Like most NHL players, the Calgary Flames winger likes his equipment a certain way and the wheels, well, if they don’t work, nothing does.
But Frolik is beyond particular. Meticulous, even. The 29-year-old native of Kladno, Czech Republic, is constantly fussing, swapping out old laces for new ones, exchanging an old pair for a fresh set, working with his blades, chatting with the Flames trainers to find the exact fit, feel, stiffness, comfort level.
Standing up in them. Sitting down in them. Walking around in them. Talking to curious onlookers about them.
“He is THE most finicky player,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan with a chuckle. “His skates are his thing. Anything to do with his skates. I always see him changing his laces, the tongues, the blades. He’s constantly getting new skates. I bug him and said that ‘Maybe in Czech, they didn’t have skates or something.’ He seems to collect them and is very particular.”
If being picky with his skates is Frolik’s only idiosyncrasy, it’s a small price to pay for how much he’s given to the game.
Frolik has quietly managed to carve out an impressive NHL career which, after tonight’s game at Prudential Center against the New Jersey Devils, will have spanned 700 games between the Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers.
It’s a testament to his consistency. A commitment to his craft.
Frolik’s only hope is to keep things rolling long enough to hit the 1,000-game club.
“I would never have imagined this would happen,” said the leftshooting right winger who has 135 goals and 193 assists in 699 regular-season NHL contests. “Obviously, the biggest goal is 1,000 but every number is pretty cool. When I started my career (in North America) I would never thought it would happen. But it’s a nice thing to accomplish.
“Hopefully I have a few more seasons in me and hopefully it can be here in Calgary.”
While a solid set of wheels helps him on a daily basis, Frolik has managed to avoid major injuries throughout his career which has been a big reason for his longevity.
He calls his recent jaw surgery, required when he absorbed a Brent Burns shot to the face in San Jose on Dec. 28 which also broke some of his teeth, his most serious injury yet.
“I’ve gotta knock on wood, here,” said Frolik who has a young daughter named Ella with his wife Diana who both have called Calgary home for the past three seasons. “Until this point, I’ve been a pretty healthy guy. I better knock wood again here … that kind of helps. I was lucky to be healthy until this point. It’s definitely not easy but it’s been a good ride so far.”
Since the Flames inked Frolik to a five-year deal worth $21.5-million in the summer of 2015, he’s been a jack-of-all-trades and is reliable in most any situation.
Currently on the team’s second line with Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk, which is trying to regain chemistry after Frolik’s absence, Frolik does it all.
“He’s a guy, for us, that really can do a little bit of everything,” said Gulutzan. “He plays power play, he plays penalty kill, he can play through injury, he plays fouron-four, he plays the last minute of the game. The way he lives his life — he’s so consistent with what he does. From his daily preparation, to his practices, to the way he trains — he was our top-fittest guy this year — it’s the way he lives his life on and off the ice which is why he’s so consistent.”
His work ethic and routine has been refined and provides a positive example to the young players on the Flames roster.
But Frolik’s steady on-ice play at both ends of the rink often goes unnoticed. And not in a bad way.
“He’s a bit underrated in our league as far as his two-way game goes,” Gulutzan said. “Sometimes wingers don’t get the credit they deserve as far as being defensive players. But he’s one of the best defensive wingers that I’ve coached. He can play against top players and is an underrated winger in that capacity.”
While 700 is an impressive milestone — only Troy Brouwer, Matt Stajan and Mark Giordano have achieved that feat on the current Flames roster — it’s not exactly “frame-the-puck-worthy,” according to Frolik.
There’s just simply more work to be done.
“The collection is kind of getting big so that’s nice,” he said with a chuckle. “For 500 in Winnipeg, I got the puck and put it in a frame … the 500 is kind of the halfway point to 1,000. Seven hundred is nice too, but I don’t think I need to frame that. The 1,000 is the goal.”
And, no doubt, Frolik will need a few more pairs of skates to get him there.
“Every year, they change and when they say it’s a new style, but it’s obviously never the same,” he said with a sigh. “But I like new skates a lot. It’s the only thing and it’s worked out pretty good for me.”