One of the Calgary Flames most unique young players seems to be nearing his National Hockey League return. On Tuesday morning, the Flames recalled forward Martin Pospisil from his long-term injury conditioning stint with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers. In a corresponding move, the Flames assigned forward Dryden Hunt to the Wranglers.

Pospisil was originally sent to the Wranglers on a conditioning stint back on Jan. 13. He played a pair of games with the Wranglers, playing against the Bakersfield Condors on Friday night and Sunday afternoon – the Wranglers lost 5-1 on Friday and 1-0 in overtime on Sunday. For his part, Pospisil looked a little tentative early in Friday’s game but gradually looked more at home on the ice. In Sunday’s game, Pospisil looked like his usual self, using his size in and around the net-front area to make Condors defenders very mad.

The 26-year-old Pospisil has yet to play with the Flames in the 2025-26 regular season, as he suffered an injury late in training camp at the beginning of October that sidelined him. Pospisil’s been working his way back from his injury slowly, with the Flames handling his return to play really carefully. (The injury he suffered was not disclosed, and we’ll decline to speculate about someone’s medical situation, but considering his well-documented concussion history, we totally understand being careful with his progression back from injury.)

A fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, Pospisil has been a great drafting and development success story for the Flames. He joined the AHL’s Stockton Heat back in 2019-20 and, despite some bad injury luck, has really worked his way into a unique niche for the Flames. Simply put: Pospisil is a, uh, disturber on the ice. His game has a clear identity and he’s really effective at using his speed and smarts on the forecheck for puck retrieval, net-front battles, or just generally being a nuisance on the ice.

Pospisil is currently in the final year of a contract paying him $1.25 million against the salary cap. He’ll begin a three year deal with a $2.5 million cap hit, signed over the summer, in the 2026-27 season. He was named to Slovakia’s men’s national team roster for the 2026 Olympics over the summer and is slated to represent the Flames in Italy next month.

Hunt returns to the AHL after his fourth call-up of the season, playing once on this stint. He’s played three games with the Flames this season, registering zero points.

With Hunt’s assignment to the AHL, the active roster is down to 22 players, leaving an open roster spot available. Pospisil is, at least as of this writing, still on the injury reserve list, but he’s eligible to be activated at any time.

The Flames return to action on Wednesday night when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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