Tom Lysiak joined the Flames for the 1973–74 NHL season, just the second year for the franchise, and scored a team-high 64 points. He helped the team to its first playoff berth and finished second in the voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy (top rookie). Lysiak led the Flames in scoring in each of his five full seasons with the team and represented the Flames in three consecutive NHL All-Star Games (1975, 1976, 1977). He served as the Flames’ team captain during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons, but was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks in an unpopular multiplayer deal (eight players were involved, the largest number in NHL history at the time) midway through the 1978–79 season. He is the Atlanta Flames’ all-time leader for assists with 276 and points with 431 and ranks second in goals with 155. He had 21 two-goal games with the Flames and one hat trick. Tom Lysiak played seven full seasons for Chicago and in 1980–81 led the team in scoring with 76 points, including a career-high 55 assists. The next season, 1981–82, he matched his top point-scoring season in Atlanta with 82 points and scored a career-high 32 goals.

On October 30, 1983, while a member of the Black Hawks, Lysiak tripped linesman Ron Foyt during a game against the Hartford Whalers. For the incident, the NHL imposed a 20-game suspension, one of the longest in league history. After his retirement, Lysiak worked in the landscaping, real estate and construction industries in the Atlanta area. In 2012, Tom Lysiak was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. His daughter, Jessica Lee “Jessie” Lysiak, finished in the top 3 on Season 4 of the US version of MasterChef, and is married to San Jose Sharks defenseman Justin Braun. Tom Lysiak died of leukemia in Atlanta, Georgia on May 30, 2016 at age 63, three years after he had been diagnosed with the disease in May 2013.