On Tuesday, June 10, the Calgary Flames announced the re-signing of 24-year-old forward Adam Klapka to a two-year contract extension with an average annual value of $1.25 million. Although Klapka hasn’t played a lot of games with the NHL club, the organization believes he can be a major contributor in the future and are gambling on a late-blooming developmental path.
KLAP ON 👏
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) June 10, 2025
Adam Klapka has signed a two-year extension with an AAV of $1.25 million!#Flames | @original16beer pic.twitter.com/kWOxp1LPZg
Klapka was undrafted through his draft-eligible years, putting up only modest point totals in the Czech lower leagues as an 18-year-old in 2018-19. When he was a little older, he played two seasons with the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League (USHL) as a 19 and 20-year-old before returning to Europe to play in the Czech Extraliga. He played one more season in Czechia, splitting his time between the Extraliga and their farm league, before the Flames signed him to a three-year entry-level contract (ELC) in 2022. He played the first season of his ELC with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers before making his NHL debut in the 2023-24 season and playing six games for the Flames. In those six games, he picked up one point (a goal) and 19 penalty minutes.
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Klapka would proceed to split the 2024-25 season between the Wranglers and the Flames, putting up 26 points in 33 games with the Wranglers and 10 points in 31 games with the Flames. He doesn’t earn his place on the ice with points, though — he’s a physical presence with a long reach, standing at 6-foot-8.
Extension Grade: B+
Klapka has never put up more than acceptable point totals in any league he’s played in dating back to juniors, but his points are not the reason he has come this far in the first place — his physicality and size are the darling of any hockey team, especially one like the Flames whose stars are almost all on the smaller side. Alongside his points in the AHL and NHL, Klapka put up a combined 79 penalty minutes just this previous season.
This contract is an extremely reasonable one for a relatively young fourth-liner with some upside, especially now that the NHL is out of the COVID-induced flat cap era and sub-$2 million contracts will inch closer and closer to becoming rounding errors on a cap sheet. Not only that, but the Flames are buying low and betting on Klapka’s development here.
Aliaksei Protas of the Washington Capitals was drafted in the third round in the 2019 Draft with subpar numbers playing for the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He spent the years between then and now working his way through the WHL and AHL, and even some time with Dynamo Minsk in Russia before becoming a mainstay in the NHL in 2023-24, and eventually breaking out in 2024-25 with 66 points in 76 games. It’s possible that Calgary is looking at a player like Protas, who is also a larger player with all the “tools,” and wondering if the development curve for someone of his stature will align with that of Klapka.
Even if it doesn’t, this contract is a fair price for his size and strength, and will help to stabilize the bottom six, who are all largely unsigned or will become unrestricted free agents in the offseason of 2026. After this contract expires, Klapka will still be a restricted free agent (RFA), so should he have either broken out or remained reliable, Calgary will be able to keep his negotiation rights. If they decide they don’t want to, a young player on a cheap contract with the size that Klapka has would be an intriguing project for many other teams on the trade market.
The signing’s upside is solid, but not likely to hit a ceiling like Protas; its downside is also extremely minimal, given that it has no trade protection and that its AAV is only $100,000 above the buriable maximum in the likely case Klapka spends time in the AHL. He isn’t a star signing a star’s contract and shouldn’t be expected to be, but this contract is very fair for what he brings and leaves a lot more cap space open for other, bolder moves to be made this offseason.
