People who think that Sutter just sought big tough western Canadian kids just weren't paying any attention to his drafts and point at a few picks and say "See!".
He drafted Russians, Swedes, Fins.. He drafted finesse players, offensive defencemen...
I think Darryl gets a bum rap here. He continually gets raked over the coals for his drafting and development, but he is the one that really turned things around.
You can't put a 'start date' and 'end date' on the drafting and development side of things with a GM, unless that new GM completely cleans house on that department. Sutter took over the Flames who had barely any staff, and over the years grew those departments.
Takes a few years for things to show themselves as well. Split Darryl's tenure into 3 periods, and you instantly see not only the evolution of the current Flames' drafting philosophy, but increased 'hits' as well that are now showing themselves.
Was Darryl 'great'? I don't think he was. However, he isn't as bad as how many posters think when you look at what he had to work with to start, and what the drafting and development programs looked like when he left (much bigger - almost non-existent at the start, and ending up to being fairly robust departments when he left). That was the big change, and you could see better drafting as a consequence (better drafting that the Flames still enjoy to this day).
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