'Try To Be Good Every Day'

Nick DeSimone is making the most of his NHL opportunity.

The blueliner has worked his way onto the Flames’ defence corps and has made an impression, too, collecting four assists over his seven contests with the big club this season.

His story is a lesson about the value of hard work, persistence, and self-belief. After six full AHL seasons - 380 regular season and playoff games in all - the steady defender is making a case to spend more time with the Flames as they begin a four-game road trip Monday night in Seattle.

“I think each game, you get more comfortable,” DeSimone said Sunday before the team jetted to the Pacific Northwest. “Obviously that stuff’s nice (four assists in seven games), but my job is to defend hard, kill plays and things that I can keep getting better at.

“That’s my main focus.”

DeSimone’s offensive upside is plain to see. His helper Saturday night involved placing the New York Islanders in a sort of stasis, as all six opposition skaters watched him glide down the right wing before sifting a pass cross-crease to Blake Coleman for a back door tap-in.

On two occasions in the AHL, including last season with the Calgary Wranglers, he’s put up 46 points in a season.

For a Flames group that’s started to see an injection of offence from the blue line in recent games, it’s an encouraging sign.

DeSimone isn’t taking anything for granted, though, as he prepares to turn 29 this coming Tuesday.

It took almost a full decade for him to get to The Show from his first year of NHL Draft eligiblity in 2013 (he wasn’t selected); his hockey journey took him from Buffalo, to Schenectady, San Jose, Stockton and all points in-between.

But DeSimone figures that sticktoitiveness is a by-product of his upbringing in East Amherst, N.Y., a stone’s throw from Buffalo.

“It was probably parenting, teaching me to stay with it, watching my dad work hard every day,” the defenceman said of his no-quit attitude. “I get to play a sport for a living; I’ve loved every day, it’s not really a job to me.

“I just try to be good every day, and take it day by day.”

Since being recalled by the Flames Nov. 3, DeSimone has mainly been paired alongside veteran Nikita Zadorov on the Calgary blueline.

But he says each of his defensive colleagues have passed along pointers as he adjusts from the AHL to the NHL.

“All of those guys are unbelievable players; just watching them, how they play, things they do, (there are) little things I can pick up on,” he said. “Everybody’s got their own different little niche, everybody’s good at something different, so you can really kind of pick from all of them, which has been great.”

And while Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil have certainly turned heads since being recalled from the Wranglers, DeSimone has quietly gone about his business, too.

He figures that success is a real reflection on how he and his fellow callups have been tutored and prepared at the AHL level, from former bench boss Mitch Love, to current head coach Trent Cull and the rest of the Wranglers staff.

“Especially here in the Calgary organization, we’re given everything we need,” DeSimone said. “Basically, the onus is on you, if you want to work and really bring it every day.”

“Everything you need is down there.”