Hunter Smith, Keegan Kanzig, Austin Carol, Zach Fischer, Stepan Falkovsky, Riley Bruce, Tim Harrison, etc., etc. etc.
Flames have been trying to get one of these guys to work out. Hockey remains a full-contact sport, and as long as it remains so, size will continue to be advantageous having everything else remain equal. Pospisil is basically the only prospect in the system that has some upside and has that physical ability I am alluding to. Now there is Klapka.
I was a bit skeptical of him. I thought that if he did work out, it would probably be years down the road and probably in another organization. Often these really tall players take more time to grow into their bodies - not just muscle mass, but coordination. Klapka seems outright skilled right now. It is rather exciting to think of how much further this kid can get.
People will always lament those draft picks I wrote above as terrible wastes of picks. However, if one of them works out, they can greatly impact your team. None of them were outright goons - even Kanzig (for those that never bothered to read Tod Button talking about him and how he was trending, it is worth a search and a bit of a read, though it is depressing how it did finally end up).
I think that in that 2015 'surprise' playoff season, Flames don't beat Vancouver without Ferland. They don't beat Vancouver without a few other pieces as well of course, but Ferland was unquestionably an important piece that year.
Really awesome to see Klapka demonstrate excellent skating all-around, a willingness to engage (physically along the boards, not just fighting), and the ability to make fairly high-level plays. That pass to Petterssen was really great, for instance. Kid has me excited. Hope the organization gets him (and Pospisil too!) to really pick their spots when they fight.
Klapka can turn out to be something rather special. Just a fantastic package.
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