Do you remember Ric Nattress?
Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 1988-89 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Ric Nattress.
Nattress, a defenceman, played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brantford Alexanders, scoring three goals and 24 points in 65 games in 1979-80, his draft year. This led to the Hamilton, Ontario native being selected 27th overall by the Montréal Canadiens.
The following season, he scored eight goals and 42 points in 51 games, before potting a career-high 11 goals and 61 points in 59 games in 1981-82. He added three goals and 10 points in 11 post-season games. At the end of the season, he played five post-season games in the American Hockey League.
Nattress only played nine regular season games in the minors in 1982-83, instead earning 40 games with the Canadiens where he scored a goal and four points. The following season, he played 34 games Canadiens due to a suspension. In 1984-85, he played his final five games for the Canadiens but won the Calder Cup with the Sherbrooke Canadiens after scoring four goals and 17 points in 16 post-season games.
Before the 1985-86 season, he was traded to the St. Louis Blues where he flourished. Mattress scored four goals and 24 points in 78 games that season, followed by a career-high six goals and 28 points in 73 games. Once again, he was traded, this time to the Flames.
His scoring dipped in 1987-88, managing just two goals and 15 points in 63 games. However, he won the Stanley Cup with the team in 1988-89, scoring a goal and nine points in 38 games, chipping in with three assists in 19 post-season games as they won their first and only Stanley Cup.
The defenceman played another two full seasons with the Flames, scoring six goals and 33 points in 107 games. Starting the 1991-92 season with the Flames, he had five assists in 18 games before being involved in one of the largest trades in team history with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mattress played 36 games for the Leafs in 1991-92, scoring two goals and 16 points.
He signed with the Philadelphia Flyers before the beginning of the 1992-93 season, scoring a career-high seven goals with 10 assists to boot, before calling it a career.
Even Stanley Cup championship teams need role players, and Nattress certainly helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 1989.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.
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