Flames sign forward Martin Pospisil to three year extension ($2.5 million AAV)

Pospisil will spend the 2025-26 season on an expiring deal with a $1 million cap hit. He was slated to become an RFA on July 1, 2026. This new deal kicks in for the 2026-27 season and runs through 2028-29, covering two years of potential unrestricted free agency for the forward.

A product of Zvolen, Slovakia, the 25-year-old Pospisil has had a pretty unique journey in hockey. He came over to North America to play in the United States Hockey League for his draft year, and his performance with the Sioux City Musketeers led to him getting drafted by the Flames in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Draft.

He went pro in 2019-20 as a 20-year-old, and that led to an ongoing saga where scouts and onlookers marvelled at his speed, size and talent, but just wondered if he would ever be healthy enough to use them all to their full potential. We wouldn’t call Pospisil injury-prone by any stretch, but he had horrible luck in terms of being hurt at inopportune times – and a growing history of concussions probably caused some doubt that he could be the type of player he wanted to be as a pro.

But things changed for him in 2023-24. A slow start to the NHL club’s season led to a pair of recalls to Pospisil and Connor Zary, designed to give a flat Flames team a jump-start. Both players ended up grabbing hold of spots in the lineup and became NHL regulars, with Pospisil finding a niche as someone that could play on any line and bring some pace and physicality to the proceedings.

He’s probably not destined to be a high-end offensive producer, but as the Flames keep bringing in some younger, offensive-minded forwards and blueliners, having someone like Pospisil around to crash and bang and create space seems like a great fit for what the club needs.