In the early weeks of the 2024-25 NHL season, conversation around Martin Pospisil generally focused on the misguided and sometimes costly penalties he was taking.
Today, it’s different.
Pospisil has still taken the second-most penalties behind Brayden Pachal on the Calgary Flames roster, with 25.
But he’s drawn more penalties than he’s taken, with 26. That number has him tied for Nazem Kadri for the team lead and is the sixth-most in the entire NHL.
“It wasn’t the way I want to play (earlier in the season), but sometimes the game is fast and if you try to be physical it’s kind of hard to be on the line,” Pospisil explained. “I’m happy I’m on the other side and helping my team, drawing penalties. I know we have a good power-play that can score, so it’s important.”
It’s more than just important.
Getting the power-play unit on the ice is a big key to the Flames’ success this season.
No team in the NHL has scored fewer than the 98 goals the Flames have managed in five-on-five play, as of Wednesday afternoon.
Their power play, though, has steadily improved throughout the season and has been converting on 22.1 per cent of its opportunities. That’s still middle of the pack around the NHL, but it’s come up with big goals in timely moments for a team that needs to win low-scoring games.
And nobody’s been drawing the penalties that lead to those power-play opportunities more than Pospisil and Kadri.
“I think our power-play now has confidence that when they’re put in a situation they’re going to go out there and get the job done,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “That’s different in the second half of the year than it was earlier on, but those two guys, they draw penalties because their feet are always moving.
“They’re hard to handle, those two, because they’re always moving their feet, so if you get on the wrong side of one of them they’re either getting to the net or you’re having to take a penalty on him. More guys, we would like to see play like that.”
It’s no surprise to see Kadri among the league-leaders in drawn penalties. Since the start of the 2020-21 season, only three players around the NHL have managed to draw more — Brady Tkachuk is No. 1, while Connor McDavid and Matthew Tkachuk are second and third.
Pospisil wasn’t even in the league’s top-50 last season, although he only played in 63 games in his first year in the NHL and drew 23 penalties. In the same number of games this year, he’s drawn 26 while cutting down on the unforced errors that led to penalties of his own.
It’s a sign of growth, in Huska’s eyes.
“He’s always walked the line but I think over the year and if you look back to last year, he’s grown up,” Huska said. “He’s matured a bit and he understands situations better than he did before. Early in his career, it was ‘I’ve got to make an impact and people have to notice me when I’m on the ice.’
“Now, I think he’s comfortable with where he’s at so he’s got a better idea of how he has to play the game in a physical manner without doing it in a way that puts our team in a tough spot.”
That’s growth, and the penalties Pospisil has drawn this season have been integral to the Flames’ continued fight for a playoff spot.
It’s something both he and Kadri pride themselves on doing.
“Giving the power play the opportunity to make a difference in the game and lately we have been,” Kadri said. “That’s crucial, if you want to make the playoffs or succeed in the playoffs, special teams is a no-brainer, it’s got to be pretty dialled-in and just having those opportunities increases your chance of winning, so we need to continue to do that.”