The Stanley Cup playoffs are a pretty magical time.

During the regular season, fans of all 32 teams – and the media members in each market – tend to be fixated on their local club team. But as the playoffs begin, the number of active teams is halved and the opportunity exists to dial in on a team you haven’t focused on as much during the regular season.

When Calgary Flames fans began watching the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs, they could be forgiven if they did a bit of a double-take. Centring the fourth line, wearing #77, was Mark Jankowski.

Yes, that Mark Jankowski.

Jankowski occupies a bit of an ignominious spot in Flames lore, due to no fault of his own. A Ontario product and a standout in Quebec prep school hockey at Stanstead College, Jankowski was a highly-regarded prospect ahead of the 2012 NHL Draft. Blessed with a tall, lanky frame (listed at 6’2″ and 168 pounds at the time), he had worked his way up the rankings from 74th among North American skaters in Central Scouting’s mid-year rankings to 43rd in their final edition.

No doubt about it, between his size, his skills and his bloodlines – the legendary Red Kelly is his great uncle – Jankowski was going to get selected. But still, brows throughout the hockey world were furrowed when the Flames traded down from 14th overall, gaining a second-rounder, and selected Jankowski in the first round, 21st overall.

Prospects still available when Jankowski’s name was called included Olli Maatta (the eighth-ranked North American skater), Brendan Gaunce (13th) and and Colton Sissons (14th).

Speaking to the media after the selection, then-general manager Jay Feaster did his level best to stand up for the player and the pick. You cannot knock the intention – making it known that you believe in the young man you just selected in the first round – but the execution and choice of phrasing left something to be desired.

10 years after the 2012 NHL Draft, Jankowski was coming off a season split between the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres and the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans – a 2021-22 season that began for Jankowski on a minor-league contract. Four years after that, Jankowski is a key member of the Hurricanes and a win away from playing in the Stanley Cup Final.

Hockey can be a weird, tough business. But Jankowski deserves credit for sticking with it, taking every opportunity to work on hsi game, and quietly carving out a heck of a career. He’s played 482 regular season NHL games, 45th among everyone in his draft class – and more than 11 other first rounders, including six selected before him (Nail Yakupov, Ryan Murray, Griffin Reinhart, Derrick Pouliot, Slater Koekkoek and Mikhail Grigorenko).

And while Jankowski’s 208 regular season games with the Flames before his 2020 free agency departure are less than 2014 first-rounder Sam Bennett or 2016 first-rounder Matthew Tkachuk… but it’s more than double the games played by first-rounders Kris Chucko, Matt Pelech, Leland Irving, Greg Nemisz, Tim Erixon and Sven Baertschi played with the Flames combined.

Is Mark Jankowski one of the Flames’ all-time great draft selections? No. But he’s far from the worst, and he’s quietly carved out a really solid professional career and played a ton of NHL games. Heck, he’s playing a key depth role on a team that’s a win away from playing for the Stanley Cup.

It’s time to put some respect on Jankowski’s name.

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