The night before Jakob Pelletier was rewarded with his first call-up of the campaign, he was going back and forth by text message with Calgary Flames star forward Jonathan Huberdeau.
Since Huberdeau jokingly refers to Pelletier as “my son,” it’s hardly a surprise that he was doing his darnedest to look out for the youngster.
“We were texting and he was like, ‘Oh, you gotta go to bed. You have a big game tomorrow,’ ” relayed Pelletier, who was in Winnipeg that weekend with the AHL’s Wranglers. “And then I show up at the rink the next day and they told me, ‘You’re going up.’ ”
By that point, the conversation had picked up again.
“He just sent to me, ‘Bro … ’ and then a wink face,” Huberdeau said, shaking his head and smiling at the same time. “I’m like, ‘I’m not your bro, I’m your dad.’
“So I didn’t get it. Because we didn’t know yet. It was a day-off for us. And then I asked him, ‘What time are you playing?’ He said, ‘I’m not playing.’ That’s when I got it — ‘Oh, you’re coming up?!? I’m so pumped for you.’ ”
Pelletier, who passed through waivers in early October, is so far making the most of his latest NHL look, another opportunity to show he should be part of the long-terms plans around the Saddledome and then Scotia Place.
The 23-year-old potted a goal against the St. Louis Blues, winning a battle at the edge of the paint and chopping a rebound through the legs of a defender, and made a heads-up pass to earn a primary assist on Brayden Pachal’s timely tally in Nashville.
He was bumped into a middle-six role for Saturday’s showdown with the reigning Stanley Cup champions, skating alongside Yegor Sharangovich and his former minor-league roomie Connor Zary, and head coach Ryan Huska praised that Pelletier was “real effective” in a 3-0 blanking of the Florida Panthers.
Perhaps most important of all, this energetic winger is proving he can be an asset to a penalty-kill unit that has ranked among the worst in the league this fall. In five appearances since he was called up, Pelletier has yet to be scored against in a shorthanded situation. (He was scratched for Thursday’s thumping from the Tampa Bay Lightning, when the out-of-towners notched three power-play goals.)
“I pride myself on playing PK. It’s a huge part of the game,” said Pelletier, who was working both sides of special teams with the Wranglers. “Since I’m young, I’ve been playing PK and I enjoy it too. If you have a good PK, I feel like it can change games.”
It doesn’t feel like hyperbole to suggest this also has game-changer potential in Pelletier’s quest to show he should be a lineup lock for the Flames.
Each of the depth dudes needs their niche. Kevin Rooney is a prime example, as he is a staple alongside Mikael Backlund on Calgary’s top penalty-kill unit. In recent games, Blake Coleman and Pelletier have been the next forward pair over the boards.
“He has, and for (fellow call-up) Walker Duehr as well, there’s a chance for those guys to continue to try to find or grab hold of something that allows them to feel like, ‘Hey, I bring some more value to the table,’ ” Huska said. “I think that’s why our power-play has gotten much better lately is guys feel like, ‘Hey, this is something that is the difference in a game.’ I think our penalty-kill has struggled a little bit because we haven’t had enough guys grab hold of it, like, ‘This is my thing.’
“So we’re hopeful that (Pelletier) will continue to run with that role.”
You can bet others are hoping the same, not only because improved penalty-killing stats should lead to more victories but because this first-round pick from 2019 is so popular in the locker-room.
Asked if any of his current teammates reached out during the waiver process, when 31 other clubs passed on the opportunity to claim him off the freebie pile, Pelletier immediately rattles off a handful of names — Backlund, Huberdeau, Rooney, Zary and Matt Coronato.
“They were like, ‘Man, we hope we don’t lose you on waivers. Just keep playing. Go work hard and we’re going to see you up here soon,’ ” Pelletier said. “And I kinda did that. You know, it’s crazy, the saying that you’ve gotta look yourself in the mirror. But I swear to God, I did look myself in the mirror. I was going to the shower and I looked myself in the mirror after I cleared waivers and I was like, ‘Man, you just have to get back to work. You have to prove everybody wrong.’ It’s been like that for me since I’m young — to prove people wrong. That’s a mindset I have since I’m young and it’s the same mindset I have here.
“To play in the NHL, it means the world to me,” he continued. “I’m grateful to be here. I’m really happy. But there is some work into that, as well, you know what I mean? Every game, I have to prove that I belong in the NHL.”