Kulak leads the pack forging everyday NHL careers

More than halfway through this season, Brett Kulak looks like an NHLer. He leads a group of four Flames players who all started the season having never been NHL regulars, yet are now knocking on the door to full-time work. It’s a credit to Calgary’s organizational depth and, if things continue in a similar manner, these four players present effective, low cost options over the next few years.

For the purpose of this piece, I’m omitting players like Andrew Mangiapane, Marek Hrivik, and Ryan Lomberg due to their sample sizes. The four players we are focusing on all have at least 26 games under their belt this season, giving us a decent body of work to evaluate. So who are we talking about? And…