POSPISIL THE BIGGEST SURPRISE FOR FLAMES
Centre who contemplated quitting hockey a year ago is now one of NHL'S best pests
Martin Pospisil wasn't being rude, just matter of fact.
During his end-of-season interview at the Saddledome, the rambunctious and sometimes controversial rookie was asked about his reputation around the NHL.
The answer was as unapologetic and blunt as each of the
238 hits that he delivered in his first campaign with the Calgary Flames.
“Actually, I don't really care,” Pospisil replied, keeping a mostly straight face as teammate Connor Zary — also seated at the podium — burst into a wide smile. “I just want to help the team to win. Doesn't matter what it is going to take. Not everyone is going to like you. So I don't really watch the media or whatever is going around me. I'm just focusing on my game, every day to be better and to help the team to win.”
The 24-year-old Pospisil was arguably the best story, and certainly the biggest surprise, for the Flames in 2023-24, a guy who emerged seemingly out of nowhere to become a fixture on what was often their most dangerous line. Within a few weeks of his call-up in early November, the wrecking ball winger was already Calgary's most effective forechecker.
He finished the season with eight goals, 24 points and those 238 collisions, the highest hit count by any Flames thumper in nearly a decade.
And yes, with a reputation. Pospisil, who will be representing Slovakia next month at the world championship tournament, is already on the shortlist of the NHL'S most effective pests. He is despised by opponents. He has been labelled by some as dirty.
“He was awesome this year,” said Flames coach Ryan Huska. “If you look at our team, there was one guy that I thought changed that 2-7-1 start, had an impact on flipping the script a little bit on our season, and that was Marty. Every night, he was a rat, if I can say that.”
Pospisil has certainly been called worse.
“The pace he plays the game at, that's what we want to see from more of our players,” Huska added. “He is what we want to look like (as a team), in a lot of ways.”
“He plays only one way — he plays all out every shift, all game, right down to the last minute,” said general manager Craig Conroy. “That's what we love about him. And I believe he still has another level of skill. As he goes, I think he is only going to get more and more comfortable. He has a great shot, great hands. He's going to be a big part of this team for a long, long time.”
Indeed, Pospisil has a big league skill set — blazing speed and some sneaky moves — but it's his snarky side that made him an immediate fan favourite at the Saddledome and someone enemy skaters and referees always seemed to be aware of.
In 63 appearances as a freshman, he racked up 109 penalty minutes, the first Flames player into triple digits since the equally irritating Matthew Tkachuk in his rookie campaign. Pospisil would have easily doubled that total if he accepted all his invitations to dance, but he steers clear of fights because of his history of head injuries. Last winter, after sustaining his fifth career concussion in a minor league scrap, he worried he might be forced to retire.
You can understand why the other guys often want to beat him to a pulp. And that's a compliment.
Pospisil was suspended for three games in early March as punishment for a dangerous hit on Seattle's Vince Dunn and ejected from two other contests for major penalties — a crosscheck on Boston's Brad Marchand and an open-ice elbow on Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey.
Though the Flames don't want to dull his edge any, this feisty forward knows he must limit the number of times he leaves his team short-handed and avoid the type of hits that may land him in hot water with the NHL'S Department of Player Safety. He doesn't want to be on George Parros's speed dial list.
“Of course, it's not fun to sit in the penalty box or in the stands,” Pospisil said on locker cleanout day. “I'm still learning. It's my first year. Just be smarter with some hits.
“I'm still learning and hopefully it's going to be better. I'm still working on it. But the game that I play, I'm not going to change anything.”
What's changed is that Pospisil, already signed to a two-year extension, will be considered a lineup lock when he arrives for training camp in the fall. With a cap hit of US$1 million, he could prove to be a bargain.
As Huska told reporters last week: “He can be a really good NHL player. Not just an NHL player. This guy can be a really good NHL player.”
Just being an NHL player, period, is perhaps more than many expected from Pospisil. A fourth-round pick in 2018, he was rarely included on any list of the Flames' most promising prospects.
“This season, it meant a lot,” Pospisil told Postmedia after his exit meeting at the Saddledome. “I was just thinking about it — that last year, around this time of the year, I was maybe thinking to quit hockey. And I finally got healthy, but then I didn't make the team for Wranglers in playoffs.
“And then all of a sudden, in one year, you're part of the team with the Flames. Everything happened so fast.
“I think I still need a couple weeks to realize what really happened over the last few months. I was just enjoying every day.”