[FacePaint]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Well, the Flames drafting seems vastly improved over the past two years.

in 11' we drafted

Sven Baertschi - Obviously skilled- Tim Erixon, Greg Nemisz

Markus Granlund - 4th in the SM-Liiga in points behind only Barkov, Armia, and Teravainen. Seems to be quite skilled as well. - Mitch Wahl

Tyler Wotherspoon - 37 points and a +62 as a D-man and a PPG guy in the playoffs for Winterhawks. Seems like he's doing a good job.- John Negrin

John Gaudreau - Looking more and more like a Daniel Briere/Martin St. Louis upside type of player. - Bjorgland, Larson

Laurent Brossoit - A decent goalie who's been one of the better goalies in the WHL. As good of potential that you could hope for with a 6th round pick. - Ortio/Irving


We might end up getting 5 NHL players in 5 picks with Brossoit seeming the most likely to not make it.

in 2012

Jankowski - A 6-4 center that has above average playmaking skills and is quick for a player of that size. Pretty good. - Jessiman?

Sieloff - A defensive banger type. Has been decent this year. Has battled some injuries. Gauthier?

Gillies - The best freshman goalie in the NCAA and in the conversation for best goalie in the NCAA. - too tired

Brett Kulak - 44 points as a defenseman. - Ramholt
Ryan Culkin - 45 points as a D-man. Both these guys are Brodie types as they were drafted due to having high offensive instincts. If they can learn the defensive side of the game, they could be excellent 2nd pairing guys or better. - Ramholt 2

Coda Gordon - 59 points - my least favourite pick of the bunch. He seems to be a possible 3rd/4th line guy maybe. Don't really see him amounting to much- OK

Matt DeBlouw - 21 pts in 42 games in the NCAA. Not bad for a first year player. He's more of a defensive forward and a possible decent 3rd/4th liner possibly in the future.
- Begin?

Between all of those guys, there are only a couple of players that are definitely on the weak side in terms of potential in Gordon and maybe Deblouw, but the rest show NHL potential in some form or another.

With this draft being quite good, with multiple good options with each of the top 3 picks and beyond, I think it would be difficult to screw it up (famous last words I know).

Fair enough but maybe things have changed? Maybe we see same stuff again?