Martin Pospisil signs three-year extension with Calgary Flames

Article content

There’s more to Martin Pospisil’s game than speed and aggression and the Calgary Flames wouldn’t complain one bit about seeing him add a little more offence.

Not if it means he has to sacrifice what’s made him so valuable to them so far, though.

The Flames announced Wednesday afternoon that they’d signed Pospisil to a three-year contract extension that will kick in for the 2026-27 season and will pay him an average of US$2.25-million annually.

And while there’s a belief that he’s only scratching the surface of his potential, it’s his speed and physicality that makes him such an important piece of the Flames puzzle.

“The numbers, yeah, you would love 10 goals. Sure, that would be nice,” said Flames GM Craig Conroy. “But he changes the momentum of games and shifts. The other team at times isn’t worried about the game, they’re worried about what Pospisil is doing, finishing checks, using his speed, going to the net hard. He agitates people.

“You need all different types of players on the team and even if the offence didn’t go where we want, if he can still do what he’s been doing up to this point, we’d be very happy to have him.”

Pospisil is coming off a season where he scored four goals and added 21 assists. Those offensive numbers won’t wow many people, but that’s not where his true value lies for the Flames.

He finished the season with 301 hits, which was third in the entire NHL, and his willingness to go into the dirty areas and get under opponents’ skin is something that every team could use.

And while he may have developed a reputation for dirty play in his first season (2023-24), he showed real growth in Year 2 and earned the praise of head coach Ryan Huska for staying out of the box while staying physical down the stretch.

“He walks the line and we need him to walk the line,” Conroy explained. “We need him to play with that edge and physicality, but I did think there was some growth in his game last year. You’d love to see him killing some penalties and doing a little bit more because he’s so big, fast and hard to play against.

“He’s hard to handle when he’s on his game.”

Earlier this summer, the 25-year-old was announced as one of the preliminary six players who will represent Slovakia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, and he’s now put pen-to-paper on a deal that will ensure he’s got the Flaming ‘C’ on his chest when Scotia Place opens in 2027.

Not a bad few months, eh?

Make no mistake, though, while the Flames would be happy with him maintaining the aggressive style of play he’s made his calling card, they’d also love it if he could add a little more offensive pop to his game.
Pospisil has played up-and-down the lineup and while the ill-fated attempt to test him out at centre early last season didn’t work out, he’s proven he can play in anything from a first-line to a fourth-line role.

Adding a few more goals and assists would solidify him as a guy who gets important minutes.

“I challenged him at the end of the year, I thought he deferred at times when he played with Kadri and the top players,” Conroy said. “He tried to overpass. He’s in great shooting positions and he’s got a great shot, but he just wouldn’t. He’d defer to the older guys.

“At the end of the year I said ‘You have to be more selfish. You have to shoot the puck more and when you go to the net you’ve got to stop and get some greasy goals.’ He did that in the American League. I do think there’s way more and if he continues to improve the way he did this year, we’re going to be really excited about his game moving forward.”

daustin@postmedia.com

www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9