Flames sign Martin Pospisil to entry-level contract

Despite an untimely end to the Flames’ season, there’s still work to be done for the team. They’ve checked one item off of their list by signing forward prospect Martin Pospisil to a three-year entry-level contract.

Pospisil was the Flames’ first pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, taken in the fourth round at 105th overall. With a 6’2, 185 lb. frame, the number that really jumps out on his stat sheet are the penalty minutes he takes: playing in the USHL both in his draft and draft+1 season, he had 253 PIMs in 2017-18, and toned that down to a crisp 118 this past season (though a 12-game suspension might have had a little to do with that).

There’s more to Pospisil than penalty minutes, though. In his draft year, he scored 37 points in 49 games; this past season, as a 19-year-old, he upped that to 63 points in 44 games. He was second for his Sioux City Musketeers in scoring and tied for eighth overall in the USHL.

A left-shooting centre who turns 20 in November, we can possibly expect Pospisil to compete for a job with the AHL’s Stockton Heat for the 2019-20 season. He was previously committed to play for St. Lawrence University in the NCAA, but was ultimately unable to do so. Now that he’s signed a professional contract, the nail is officially in his NCAA coffin, but that the Flames have committed to him is a good sign for him going forward.