As he chats with a reporter in the Calgary Flames’ locker-room, Daniil Miromanov is counting with the fingers on his right hand.
One, two, three …
Miromanov isn’t adding up his recent run of consecutive game appearances or trying to track his string of scratchings before that. Instead, he is explaining how he goes about his business — and goes about his life — as he tries to re-establish himself as a regular on the Flames’ blue-line.
“The values that I follow, it’s five things,” Miromanov said, extending his thumb, then his index finger and so on as he rattled through this list. “Show up and execute, even on the days you don’t feel like it. Listen. Do your very best. Learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them twice. And don’t quit.
“So I just try to follow those things every single day. There’s a lot of things that I can’t control. The things that I can control … You know, when it’s time to go to sleep, I brush my teeth and look myself in the mirror and if I can say, ‘I’ve done my best today,’ then I can sleep easily.
“I believe in higher powers. I believe there is a path,” he continued. “And I just have to trust myself, trust my journey. Of course, it’s tough when you’re not playing or you’re in and out, but all I can do is work as hard as I can and just try to be my very best every day.”
Miromanov remained in the Flames’ lineup for Saturday’s road date against the Wild in Minnesota, which marks three in a row for the Russian rearguard.
Prior to that, the 27-year-old had been stuck spectating for eight straight and had suited up only once in the span of more than a month, sitting for 13 of 14. Overall, he’s now played about two-thirds of Calgary’s contests during the 2024-25 campaign.
One of the wrinkles for Miromanov is he is not a natural fit for a third-pairing role, certainly not in the rough-and-tumble mould of fellow right-hander Brayden Pachal. So if he isn’t skating as the sidekick to MacKenzie Weegar, he is probably in civvies as one of the spares.
“You grow by having those conversations with the coaching staff — ‘Hey guys, what do you need me to work on so I can help the team the best?’ ” Miromanov told Postmedia before the Flames departed on this weekend roadie. “And if you’re not playing, in a practice, you try to do some extra things. Because you can always grow. You can always evolve. There’s so many things I can work on.
“So I try to work on those. And when I have an opportunity to play, I have to show it in a game.”
What the bosses want to see from Miromanov is a bit more battle.
That doesn’t mean trying to run opponents through the boards, but rather using his top traits — and his 6-foot-4, 207-pound frame — to fit the up-tempo, tight-checking style that has the Flames sitting in a wildcard spot in the Western Conference. He’s focused on being more aggressive, “because we want to have the quick transition, we want to get the puck and we want to go on offence.”
“We always ask our players to be hard in their own way,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “There’s a difference between a Ryan Lomberg hard and a Miro hard. For Miro, we want him to use his speed the right way to close quick on people, and he has to get into hands and be hungry and hard in his one-on-one battles.
“When we look at him or when we evaluate him after a game, it’s, ‘Is he doing that? Is he competitive on and at the puck?’ ”
Despite that recent stretch of sit-outs, Miromanov is encouraged about his trajectory, adamant his best hockey lies ahead.
It’s worth noting that if he stays in the lineup Sunday against the Jets in Winnipeg, it would mark Game 82 of his NHL career. That’s the equivalent of just one full season.
His resume also includes stops in the ECHL, AHL, KHL and Czech League.
“It’s been a path, for sure,” Miromanov said. “I came to Vegas when I was 24. By that time, a lot of guys have been in an organization for three or four years. So I have been always kind of a late bloomer. Some guys, they’re in the NHL since, like, 19 years old. But for some guys … Rodrigo Abols just made his debut for the Flyers, and we played together in the QMJHL. I think he’s 28 and he just made his debut, so you never know.
“We all dream to play in the NHL. For some guys, it’s early. Some guys, it’s later. It’s definitely a journey, and you just embrace it.”