The Calgary Flames miss Martin Pospisil

Last season, Martin Pospisil was limited to playing in 20 games with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers due to various injuries. He was an afterthought among the fan base when it came to discussing the top prospects in the Flames development system.

Fast forward to this season, and Pospisil has gone from an afterthought to quickly becoming one of the most important forwards on the Calgary Flames.

Last week, Pospisil was injured when he fell into the boards awkwardly in a collision with Auston Matthews. We’ve seen what his loss has meant to the Flames in their last three losses as Calgary has not looked like the same team since losing their agitating forward.

Pospisil is having a fantastic rookie season playing alongside Nazem Kadri and fellow rookie Connor Zary. Pospisil has brought size, speed, physicality and agitation to a Flames lineup that desperately needs those qualities.

The agitating nature of his play is something we haven’t seen from any Flames player since Matthew Tkachuk was traded to the Florida Panthers in 2022.

Pospisil is the type of player to drag his teammates into the game whether that is in a scum, battles in front of the net, or being a relentless forechecker. The best way to describe Pospisil is that something happens in every game he plays in. Could be a big hit, a great pass to set up a teammate, or agitating the opposition.

His goals and assists don’t jump off the page as he has four goals and seven assists in 33 games. But his underlying numbers tell a different story.

Here are Pospisil’s key analytics and where he ranks among 12 Flames forwards who have played at least 200 minutes at 5-on-5 this season. (Stats courtesy of Natural stat Trick)

The only analytic he doesn’t lead Flames forwards in is High Danger Chances For %. Andrew Mangiapane is first in that category.

We’ve seen this Flames team lack a little emotion and physicality in their game since losing Pospisil to injury. It’s one of the reasons why they are currently on a three game losing streak.

Hopefully Pospisil is able to rehab his injury during the 10 day All-Star and CBA mandated breaks. The Flames are going to need him back in their lineup as they push to stay relevant in the wild card race.