Flames fourth line centre battle on display during Edmonton split squad showdown

While the Calgary Flames didn’t experience a ton of off-season roster turnover, there are a few roster spots potentially up for grabs during 2025’s training camp.

During Sunday’s split squad set with the Edmonton Oilers, which began the Flames’ exhibition schedule, three of the players vying to open the regular season as fourth line center were in action and auditioning for that spot.

The three contenders are Martin Pospisil, Justin Kirkland and Sam Morton:

• Pospisil, 25, is entering his third full NHL season. A hard-nosed physical player, he’s been primarily a winger in the NHL.
• Kirkland, 29, is returning after suffering a knee injury in November that required surgery. He’s been a really effective AHL player since going pro, playing a mix of centre and the wing, and he’s been in the mix for full-time NHL duty over the past few seasons. He was the Flames’ Masterton Trophy nominee last season.
• Morton, 26, is entering his second pro season after playing in the NCAA with Union College and Minnesota State – Mankato. He was a pretty effective 200-foot centre with the Wranglers last season.

After morning skate on Sunday, Flames head coach Ryan Huska discussed the proposition of Pospisil playing up the middle (and framed up the prospective battle for the 4C slot):

“We’ve got lots of depth up front. Everybody can kind of be moved around and did in different spots. And that includes Justin Kirkland, who is another guy. And Sam Morton is another guy that you would consider fighting for a centre ice role on our team. And you just kind of want to see if you can create, whether it’s an identity line, whether it’s maybe with Posp being a little bit more comfortable this year, maybe there’s a difference in that. I’m not sure yet. We’ll see how it goes because I really do like what he brings on the wing. There’s a speed aspect to his game that I think he can drive defencemen back. And when he’s in the middle of the ice, he’s a little bit behind the play because he has to be almost like a third defenceman on the ice at times. So we’ll see. I mean, I like the idea of having a hard line to play against. And that line most definitely would be. And then we’ll just have to see how they go.”

Pospisil played in Edmonton alongside prospective fourth-line linemates Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka, a trio that, at least on paper, could be a nightmare for the opposition. Pospisil played 17:08 on Sunday and won just 37.5% of his 16 face-offs.

In Calgary, Kirkland centred Sam Honzek and William Strömgren. He played 13:50 and won 52.6% of his 19 draws. Morton played 12:54 between Aydar Suniev and Andrew Basha, and won 62.5% of his eight face-offs.

Of the three players, Pospisil has the most NHL experience and has able to carve out an identity for himself with the Flames… but he was notably less effective playing as a centre than he was as a rough-and-tumble winger. If that trend continues, that could open the door for Kirkland or Morton to potentially grab that spot.

With six pre-season games left on the docket, we suspect we’ll see a whole lot of these three players up the middle as their fourth line centre auditions continue.