He was told he was too small.
399 NHL games later, Andrew Mangiapane is happy to keep proving people wrong.
The Flames forward is expected to suit up in his 400th NHL contest tonight, when Calgary hosts Los Angeles at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Get tickets
“It’s a nice milestone to hit, and hopefully many more of those ‘double-zero’ games to come,” Mangiapane said following Tuesday’s morning skate. “It’s kind of an up-and-down journey from where I started, so to play 400 games definitely means a lot to me.”
Mangiapane’s story has always been one of perseverance, of dogged determination.
And on a night like tonight, there’s bound to be a sense of accomplishment for reaching a milestone his naysayers never thought he’d come close to sniffing.
“Throughout my whole life it’s kind of been that, getting cut from teams, everyone saying ‘you’re too small, you’ve got to get bigger and stronger,’” he said. “The whole journey of not even getting drafted to Barrie (in the Ontario Hockey League), being there as a free agent and not getting drafted in my first year of eligiblity to the NHL, there’s a lot of ups and downs.
“For me, it was just staying with it and having that determination that you’re going to make it, and proving everybody wrong.”
As he’s developed into a full-time NHLer, Mangiapane’s become indispensable to the Flames.
Under the tutelage of head coach Ryan Huska - who also coached Mangiapane in the AHL - the 27-year-old has carved out a spot in pretty much every situation the Flames would find themselves in over the course of a game.
And for Huska, it all comes down to attitude.
“Initially, there was a chip on the shoulder, where he knew that if he wanted to play in the NHL, he had to find a way in,” he said Tuesday. “For him, it was a little bit of that ‘dog on a bone, I’ll do whatever I have to do’ (mentality), and then he kind of proved himself in a lot of different ways; he can put up points for us, he can score goals, he’s used on our checking line now, he kills penalties, he gets powerplay time.
“He went from having to prove himself to everybody to being a guy that we rely on really heavily.”
Now in his eighth pro season, Mangiapane has had plenty of opportunities to make lifelong memories by chasing his dream.
But when asked Tuesday to reminisce on some of his more memorable moments, he circled back to New Year’s Eve of 2017.
“My first NHL game (against Chicago) was really big for me, everyone told me I wasn’t going to make it,” he recalled. “To prove all those doubters wrong, be able to play and have my family here, my sisters, it was really important for me, that game was definitely big.
“A lot of good memories and hopefully many more to come.”
