As has become tradition lately, Tuesday brought some news regarding Calgary Flames players headed to the IIHF World Championship tournament. Per the Flames’ social media, forward Adam Klapka will represent Czechia at the Worlds.

Originally signed by the Flames as an undrafted free agent out of Europe during the 2022 off-season, Klapka’s been a great success story from a scouting and development perspective. Listed at 6’8″ and 235 pounds – he’s a big dude – Klapka’s progressed really nicely. He spent 2022-23 in the AHL, but managed to earn six NHL games the following season (and scored his first NHL goal).

This past season saw Klapka split his time pretty evenly between the NHL and AHL. He actually made the Flames out of training camp as an injury replacement, but he played well enough – both in his NHL looks and when back with the Wranglers – that he kept getting called back up. Near the end of the season he seemed to earn head coach Ryan Huska’s trust and was used on the Flames’ top line, performing quite well down the stretch.

Overall Klapka had six goals and 10 points over 31 NHL games and 14 goals and 26 points over 33 AHL regular season games. (He had zero points in one AHL playoff game.)

This will be the 24-year-old Klapka’s first opportunity to play with the senior men’s national team, and his first time representing his country at a major competition since the 2019 World Junior A Challenge – Czechia finished fourth in that event. Considering the 2026 Olympics are just around the corner and there are few players that boast Klapka’s physical gifts, this could be a big opportunity for the big man to carve out a spot for himself on the Czech national team’s entry at those Olympics.

The 2025 IIHF World Championship runs May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark. In addition to Klapka, the Flames are expected to be represented by head coach Ryan Huska (Canada), MacKenzie Weegar (Canada), Zayne Parekh (Canada), Sam Honzek (Slovakia), Dan Vladar (Czechia), Rasmus Andersson and Mikael Backlund (Canada).

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