Theo Fleury, in his book Playing with Fire, writes that if he were an NHL general manager he would draft Canadian juniors exclusively because they “get it.” Although the league is less Canada-centric than it was in the previous century, Fleury’s line of thinking still runs on the edges of mainstream thought.

Vinny Prospal is the perfect counterargument. Nobody gets it like he gets it.

Tonight, Prospal will play the 1,000th game of his NHL career when the Blue Jackets play host to the Buffalo Sabres. Let us put this in perspective.

More than 7,000 men have played in the league since it was formed in 1917. Prospal will be the 268th to play 1,000. He will be the sixth Czech to do it, and that is something, too. Bobby Holik, Roman Hamrlik, Jaromir Jagr, Radek Dvorak and Petr Svoboda have played 1,000 games. Petr Nedved, Martin Straka, Robert Lang and Dominik Hasek have not and never will.

“I am very proud of this accomplishment,” Prospal said. “I also know you have to be lucky.”

You have to be a lot of things. Prospal is smart, tough, well-respected — and exuberant still, at the age of 36. Yesterday, as he sat in the dressing room after an off-ice workout, he alluded to another trait. What is the word for it? Resolute fits. We’ll go with that. Resolute.

Prospal grew up in Ceske Budejovice when it was part of communist Czechoslovakia. Censorship meant he had little idea of the NHL as he was being groomed to play for his local club, as his father did before. Although he was groomed well, there was no room for him on the roster when he came of age to play in the Czech Extraliga, and his team was more interested in the transfer fee being paid by the Philadelphia Flyers than it was in hanging on to its young prospect.

“My agent, Ritch Winter, had a Czech colleague named Jaromir Henys, who passed away from cancer just a couple years ago,” Prospal said. “Henys helped so many guys. Before he passed, he wrote a book, and in the book he explained the story with me — how the club was happy that I actually decided to leave. It was because of the transfer fee and, second of all, the general manager said if I ever played one game in the NHL he was going to eat his shoes.

“I do not feel bad about that. I can only thank the people who were running the team at the time. I was 18 years old, just drafted, and I basically had nowhere to play hockey. That sort of situation really shapes you as an individual. It was a great life lesson.”

The situation was akin to dropping a lamb into a lion’s den. Prospal crossed the ocean and landed in Hershey, Pa., where the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate was located. He had never lived anywhere but under his parents’ roof, knew little English and had yet to play in a men’s league. He was tossed into a circuit riddled with head-hunting opponents waiting at the end of seven-hour bus trips. Prospal stuck it out for three years and more than 300 games.

“It was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said. “Now I can really appreciate what I have here because I know how hard it is to play down there. I had nowhere else to go — so I stayed. I’m just proud about the way that I’ve been able to remain with the game. I get to do for a living what I love to do.”

On March 5, 1997, Prospal was called up by the Flyers. He centered a line with John LeClair on the left and Mikael Renberg on the right. He began a process of studying the habits of teammates such as Eric Lindros, Eric Desjardins, Ron Hextall and Rod Brind’Amour — especially Brind’Amour, a born leader and consummate teammate.

Prospal has had many stops — Ottawa, Florida, Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Tampa Bay again, Philadelphia again, Tampa Bay yet again, New York. He has had as linemates Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Petr Sykora and Marian Gaborik, and now he has Rick Nash and Jeff Carter. Everyone loves playing by his side.

He has been bought out once and written off more than once, most recently by the Rangers, who did not know whether his surgically repaired knee could last. Here he is, helping pull the Jackets out of a horrific funk, leading the team in scoring with six goals and 19 points in 21 games. Here he is, with 233 goals, 466 assists and 699 points in 999 games over 14 NHL seasons.

What will he think when he skates out on the ice for No. 1,000 tonight?

“How fortunate I am to be here,” he said. “How many years it has been, because this isn’t just about being here right now — it’s about being a little kid and starting to play. It’s a long process to get up to this point. I’m pretty sure I’ll try to take it like any other game, but I’ll be very, very proud to achieve this.”

Somebody out there want some ketchup with that shoe?

Michael Arace is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.

marace@dispatch.com