[dammage79]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

RW is severely lacking in the Flames' prospect pool. LW'ers and Goalies seem to have some depth, Defence looks 'deep', but without any real blue-chip prospects, and Center is 'ok', though definitely not strong.

Flames don't even have many decent RW'ers on the team right now - biggest weakness by far in the prospect pool.

Nichushkin is listed as a LW, C and I have seen him as a RW'er. I actually wouldn't mind a gamble on this kid. Rumor has it that he has an NHL out-clause after his next year in the KHL. Not sure if that is true or not. I am starting to hope the Flames draft him. Great size, strength and speed, and I am starting to think he is less and less of a gamble. Who knows, he could end up being a much better center than Barkov, right? NHL is all about speed and skill now - couple that with really good size, and it starts to become tough to pass over him - 'gamble' and all.

I would probably think the Flames will draft a center, and then look for 2 RW'ers early (if they are anywhere in the ballpark of BPA of course - I don't they would, nor should they, select further down the list to shore-up a weakness). The defence core is still relatively young (even without including Brodie - still a few good years out of most of their top 4 defencemen).

With that being said, I don't really care what position the Flames end up picking in - as long as they select the BPA. They still have vets they can trade for additional picks next year (or even for this draft - but the price of picks seems to go higher closer to the draft), or can just trade some veterans for stop-gaps (with upside) as a worst-case scenario.

I do think some a team or two in the top 4 or 5 just might end up trading down a bit, and it will be really interesting to see how how much it costs a team to move up 'x' number of spots. Even moving from 5th to 4th might be pretty steep when talking about "4 elite prospects", vs the next '3 or 4 excellent prospects'.

That, to me, is makes Nichushkin a bit more attractive. You may just end up getting one of the best 3 forwards in the draft (or even THE best), without necessarily having to trade away very valuable assets moving up to get one.

Your post also makes a strong argument for taking Lindholm as well. Being weak on the RW it would not hurt taking the right handed shot of Lindholm either. Either way Nichushkin makes the top 8 of the draft a total crap shoot. Even better for any team if Nichushkin ends up being a center as he develops. As with many other players, they seem to play on the wing until they're moved to C.