Quote:
Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary
a lot of analysis of calgary's drafting strategy has been made over the course of the last few years...obviously, there is some luck involved in any draft...
but the notion of Calgary making the 'safe' pick has always kinda bothered me.
How many of those 'safe' picks have actually made it onto our roster? seems like there is an abundance of 'safe' guys floating around as UFAs, so why expend a draft pick on someone with a low ceiling?
i also don't buy the revisionists changing Sutter's drafting philosophy to start in 08: he was the GM since 2005. The drafting might have gotten better of late, but its hard to tell at this point.
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Who said it started in 08? Sutter was full time GM in 2006. It's also not revisionist. It's well documented that when he first became part time GM several years before that, the flames had 3 amateur scouts total. Sutter almost tripled the size of the scouting Fepartment of the next couple of years. Then, when he became full time GM in 2006, he made further changes, completely re-evaluated the department, and changed thier main focus to smart players. The first pick made under this philosiphy was Mikael Backlund. He's had decent progression so far, and looks like he might actually end up becoming a #1 (although not franchise) centre in 2-4 years. Kieth Aulie is also hailed as a smart player, although he doesn't have the skill level like some other players, he's smart enough to improve his skills and use the ones he as to make up for the ones he's not as great at.
People need to be patient with the players we pick. We can Judge the 03-05 drafts reasonably well now, and say they weren't good. The 06 draft still has Irving who the flames expect will make the NHL in a year or two and eventually play a significant role on the team. It also wasn't a good draft if he's the only one that makes it.
The 07 to present drafts cant really be judged yet. This is the last year for most for the signed players ELC and although two of the players have made the NHL, we don't know where they will top out yet. As a 22 year old, Backlund has solidified himself as a 3rd liner that thinks quick enough to play with Iggy and Tanguay and have success. He needs to work on some things yet, but he seems to be dedicated to getting better which bodes well for him and for the Flames.
Edit: I wish I could find the articles again, but here were some articles from 06 or 07 where Button talked about how Sutter revamped the scouting once he became full time GM. They were from a local Calgary newpaper IIRC. More recently, Jay Feaster talked about how small the scouting department was when Sutter took over and how much he increased it's size.