Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
It would be interesting to note who really identified "hockey IQ" as being the seemingly most important trait - was it Sutter? Todd? Was it another scout? It definitely started coming about from the 2010 draft, as I never once heard it coming from Calgary before that (and at the time, thought it might just be a 'smokescreen' to try and make the picks sound sexier than they were). Seems to be a good move in the right direction as a drafting philosophy for the Flames lately.
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They've talked about doing analysis of where things went wrong in previous drafts and they realized teams made the biggest mistakes in regards to skating and size. Players with hockey sense can overcome deficiencies and improve in their weak areas but players with weak hockey sense often just won't make the NHL regardless of how good their skills and physical attributes are.
When did they do this analysis? Who knows. Who drove it? No idea. But their drafting did really seem to turn around when they started emphasizing hockey IQ.