Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Yamoto
The Flames really aren't as weak as most people believe. They are much worse.
Although guys like Baertschi show a lot of promise the Flames prospect pool is IMO hugely over rated by this board. I bet that the current Hitmen roster has more future NHLers than the Heat.
I'm actually starting to think that the Flames biggest fail is the development aspect even more so than the drafting. These players seem great when they are drafted, then the Flames wreck them. Leland Irving is a good example of that.
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To be fair re: Irving, his stats did suffer a lot in his last year of junior. That coincided with the year that Kevin Constantine was removed as head coach, a guy with a reputation for being a very defence-first coach.
I do agree though, that both drafting and development are of great importance, and the latter is often overlooked. I would not dispute with anyone if they said that the teams who get late round steals have better scouting. They likely do, but development is a huge part of it all too.