Don't get too wrapped up in the "deep draft" hype.
1997 was supposed to be deep. 16 years is adequate time to assess a draft.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1997e.html
Some superstars: Thornton, Marleau, Luongo, Hossa
Had decent careers: , Mara, Morrow,
Hannan
Underachievers:
Jokinen, Brewer, Boynton, Ference, Ward, Cleary, Noronen
Busts:
Tkaczuk, Riesen, Zultek, Jones,
Dome, Cherneski, Brown, Tselios,
Damphousse, Grimes
(The bolded names were Flames at some point in their careers.)
A few names, who ended up having lengthy careers, turned up from the later rounds.
This is to give some thought to loading up, just for this year's draft. Several of those players will get hurt, not develop or not make it for any number of reasons.