On Friday night, Martin Pospisil hit the ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome and did a bunch of things for the first time in quite awhile.

He played his first American Hockey League game since Oct. 29, 2023, as he suited up for the Calgary Wranglers in a 5-1 loss against the Bakersfield Condors. He played his first meaningful game since Apr. 15, 2025, the second-last game of the 2024-25 Calgary Flames season. And he played his first game of any importance since Oct. 1, as he works back from an injury suffered during training camp.

Pospisil centred the Wranglers’ second line, playing between Rory Kerins and Aydar Suniev. He also played on their top power play unit, joining Kerins, Daniil Miromanov, Sam Morton and Martin Frk. In terms of his stat-line, it wasn’t glowing: he was minus-2 and took a cross-checking penalty.

In terms of ticking off boxes as he works his way back to the NHL, it was a productive night.

“Physically, it’s good,” said Pospisil, following the game. “It’s just, practice is always different than game. Different situation every time when you’re playing game. The Bakersfield, they’re a pretty good team. We need to get back on Sunday. We need to be more aggressive. It’s starting with me.”

Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter offered his observations of Pospisil’s first regular season game of 2025-26 at any level.

“Pospy, I think there was just some conditioning stuff caught up,” said Sutter. “I thought maybe some timing and some sort of those plays were off a little bit. And I thought they caught up as the game went on. So for him, it’s more just about getting those reps, getting that conditioning back, and being able to, you know, play at a high level for 60 minutes.”

The pace of games is way different than the pace of practices or skating alone, but Pospisil shared that he felt good in that respect after the game.

“Yeah, lungs feel good,” said Pospisil. “I was just more worried about my head. For me, it’s pretty easy to get back. It’s just the reps, the touches and the head. If everything feels good, then my lungs, I can go through it. I know it’s a little harder when you don’t play three and a half months, but you can figure it out. You just maybe have shorter shifts and don’t be too long on the ice.”

Flames fans are used to seeing Pospisil whooshing around the ice, crashing and banging around the net-front area and the corners, and generally being a nuisance to the other team. He wasn’t quite at that level against Bakersfield, but he was progressively more noticeable as the game wore on.

Sutter detailed how Pospisil progressed against Bakersfield.

“I just thought as the game went on, he was playing hard,” said Sutter. “I’ve seen him finishing more checks. I’ve seen that he was taking some hits. He was still going to the net. So, you know, all in all, I think it was a good first game. I just, you know, you could tell that there was some conditioning things at the end of shifts in certain areas like that. But he’s going to continue to get better and better.”

The Wranglers, and Pospisil, return to action on Sunday afternoon in a matinee rematch against Bakersfield.

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