Adam Krapka was one of the last flames from the ice on Thursday morning. The team held optional skates at Winsport.
As a young player and as a recent recall from the AHL Wrangler – that’s probably what you’d expect.
However, as Klapka is dedicated to his craft, he continues to go out – firing after the shot – working on his game in anticipation of his next NHL appearance.
At 6 feet 8, he is impossible to miss there. The Czech winger lines up above his teammates in both skates and street shoes. He continues to optimize how his large frames can help influence the NHL, night and night out.
Around the continent, another big name is enjoying a breakout season with the Washington Capitals.
In his fourth NHL season, Aliaksei Protas broke off offensively. He homed 28 of his 41 career NHL goals in 2024-25. This is the total, including a hat-trick of his first career earlier this week – and he has led the league this season with an eye-opening +39 rating.
Protas – just under four months Klapka’s junior – checks in at 6 feet 6 and 247 pounds, so there are similarities if the size is large.
However, his season at DC has also attracted the attention of Flames head coach Ryan Huska. RyanHuska made a voice out whether Klapka could develop into the same type of impact player here.
“We’ll talk a lot about (Klapka) being a player we don’t have, how he skates, his size, he’s a powerful guy,” he said Wednesday. “Everyone has seen what Washington big names did this year – Protas – and he has a great skill set, so he is a physical guy and he is a load to treat him pretty much the same.
“We want to continue working with him and grow him within our organization.”
Klapka does not have a Protas NHL resume. Flames Forward was a free agent signature, but Protas was selected in the third round of the 2019 draft.
However, it can be aggressive. He had a 21-goal high water mark with the Wranglers last season. This winter, Klapka has split 15 tallies into AHL and NHL.
“You look at his (Protas) a year ago and I think he had six goals. I think he’s almost 30 years old this year,” Huska explained. “He moved here for a bit, so he came up with his own path. American League numbers – a bit similar – about what both guys were.
“That’s what we see. He’s a very shocking player to them and we know that there are players like that.
Calgary defensive man Braden Pachar has a unique perspective on both big men.
At practice on Thursday, he stayed late with Krapka.
However, as a junior, Pachar won the Prince Albert Raiders for the WHL title in 2019. This stored the regular season with Protas in the lead role and 11 goals during Prince Albert’s playoff run in the spring of 22 points with 12 goals.
“We had a really good team, he was a big part of it,” Pachar recalled on Thursday. “(Calgarian) Brett Leson was on that team, and he had a breakout year, and I think he probably attributes a lot of it to playing with Alex.
“He sees the ice superwell, he finds the open man, he is a playmaker, he has the shot. He gets it all. It’s no surprise that he’s doing it now.”
And Pachar sees the same type of similarity that Huska sees when he is aligned two tall fronts side by side, so to speak.
“I think you do. Klapper is a huge guy, he moves well and he has great skills,” he said. “I think it’s Alex. He’s a big guy, he skates really well, he sees the ice and he has the skills to go with it.
Once Klapka is used to speed and skills at the NHL level, he has only played 19 games with flames up to this point.
It’s probably music to everyone’s ears.
“He puts in work. I think you have to do a bit for such a big guy,” Pachar said. “But another thing that Clapper brings, he’s tough. I think he has a bit of that edge because he plays the game so hard. Alex may not be.
“I think Clapper’s development curve is definitely on the right trend.”
