Q&A: Flames’ Ryan Huska bullish on Martin Pospisil playing up the middle

PENTICTON — Following a summer of debate over which young Calgary Flames fixture will move from wing to centre this year, Ryan Huska made it clear who he’s most intrigued by.

“I am being pretty up front — I want to see Marty (Pospisil) up the middle of the ice,” said the Flames’ second-year coach while watching over the team’s prospects in the South Okanagan.

“He played at the world championships (for Slovakia) and recent games to get themselves into the Olympics. I want to see if he can do it in the NHL.”

While rattling off some of the line combinations he wants to try during the pre-season, he mentioned putting the 24-year-old between Jonathan Huberdeau and Anthony Mantha.

A lofty assignment, which could result in being the team’s top trio, if things click.

“Anthony is a shooter, and I think he should be a guy that should be a threat to score goals every time he’s on the ice,” said Huska.

“When Jonathan’s at his very best, I don’t think there’s a guy that likes to pass more than him in the NHL. There’s a chance that it could be a pretty good marriage there. So finding the guy in the middle of the ice will be key for us to see if we can find something that works.”

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Given Pospisil’s size and effectiveness as one of the league’s biggest revelations last season, why not try the rugged sophomore in one of the team’s most important roles?

“I’m really interested to see if Martin can grab hold of it,” said Huska, who promises to mix and match lines throughout camp with an eye on also giving Connor Zary and Yegor Sharangovich significant reps up the middle. 

“He’s got a lot of characteristics that I like that a centreman needs to have, and he has the ability also to drag his linemates into a game.

“Talking to him this summer, I told him, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about trying you in the middle. Are you okay with that?’ He’s like, ‘Coach, I’ll do whatever you want me to do’. So he’s a good kid. They all are. They want to do whatever they can to help the team win and have success. So we’re going to give him that chance.”

Following years of injury issues in the minors, Pospisil made good on his call-up early last season and was brilliant on the wing alongside Nazem Kadri and Zary most of the year.

In the final month he was instrumental in helping Kadri’s line as Andrei Kuzmenko lit it up.

The Flames know those combos work, but with the organization short on centres, now is the time to figure out which of the three can start to be groomed as a full-time fixture up the middle moving forward.

Last season, Sharangovich filled in admirably at centre after Elias Lindholm was traded, but his offence took a hit as he made the adjustment.

Zary is a longtime centre whose forte is controlling the puck, which is something he was able to do more of late last season when he finished up the middle.

Craig Conory said both Zary and Pospisil see themselves as natural centres, even though both had success breaking through as NHLers last season on the wing.

Pospisil said he’s spoken to Huska about the audition of sorts and is game to give it a go.

“Hopefully I will get a chance to play centre, but I can play whatever is best for the team,” smiled the six-foot-two, 195-pound lefty when asked about his positional status.

“We’ll see.”

One of the combinations Huska also mentioned included putting Zary on the wing with Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund. Everyone who plays with Coleman and Backlund gets a boost. 

We sat down with Huska for a lengthy one-on-one chat in which he addressed several other camp battles and storylines to watch for: 

SPORTSNET: What do you need to see from Matt Coronato in camp for him to stick with the team?

RYAN HUSKA: For me, Matty is a guy we need to score. We need him to generate some offence, but he has to do it in a responsible way. I want to be able to trust him on the ice when he’s doing that. I’m not saying I don’t right now, but I want to know that if we’re in a game, we’re up 3-2 with five minutes left, that he’s going to do the right things defensively, because the goals and assists will always follow him. 

He’s a shooter, so I’d love to see him have an exhibition season where he’s able to put a few goals up on the board and feel really good. All these players have to push people out of roles, and so he’s no different. 

SN: Same question about Jakob Pelletier, what do you need to see from him? 

RH: Same thing. I like Jakob’s energy. He’s all the time. And that’s something that I feel like we missed when he was out of our lineup last year. It’s finding where he fits in in the group. Like, are you someone that’s going to play higher up in the lineup, or are you a guy that’s going to be a checking-line guy? Are you going to be a guy that’s going to grind in a fourth-line role? Those are all things that are going to be up to the player. He’s going to have to decide where he fits in and find a way to take a job permanently.

SN: As a defensive pair, you liked MacKenzie Weegar and Daniil Miromanov together. From there, is it all about trying to find out who fits better with Rasmus Andersson, whether it’s Kevin Bahl or Jake Bean?

RH: Yes, totally. And then there’s (Tyson) Barrie, there’s (Jarred) Tinordi, (Joel) Hanley, (Brayden) Pachal — they’re all in there. So, we have competition on the back end. 

Weegar and Andersson are not coming out of the lineup. Those are guys that we’re going to lean on. There’s a lot of competition for all of the other spots. So if someone has an off night, well, hey, no problem, this guy’s going to go in and give us something. I really like that part of our back end. There’s a lot of guys that we feel are capable of playing right now. So it’s going to be up to them to grab hold of it. 

SN: Is the underdog mentality something you feel like your players will embrace?

RH: To me, that’s outside noise, and I’m gonna try to keep all that outside noise away. First of all, it’s nothing that we can control. You can’t control what someone thinks of you or what they say about you. So why waste your time and energy on it? I go back to the standard again. What matters is what guys expect of each other inside the dressing room,

This is what we’re going to decide as a group. And you can be competitive, and you can work. That’s fully within your control.

SN: Your GM said he believes the most intriguing battle in camp will revolve around the goalies battling for the starting gig. Do you see it that way?

RH: I don’t know if it’s intriguing battle or not. It’s more, I want one guy to grab hold of it. 

They always want an opportunity. Everybody says that when they’re talking, ‘Hey, if I just had a little bit more opportunity, I know I could be really good in that spot.’ Well, three of those guys have that opportunity that probably for their whole professional careers, they’ve been like, ‘Geez, if I could ever get that chance.’ So for me, it’s about who’s going to grab it. It’s not necessarily a battle per se. It’s just, I want to see one of them do really good job taking that opportunity and running with it.

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