Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakester
Sutter's lack of success at the draft also proved costly in the long run. He didn't do himself any favours by frequently trading picks and the most of the players he did pick never panned out. His habit of trading down was especially bad for the team. Consider the following:
2004: Moves down from 19th to 24th. Drafts Kris Chucko. Players picked between 19 and 23 included Travis Zajac, Wojtek Wolski, and Andrej Mezaros.
2007: Moves down from 18th to 24th. Drafts Mikael Backlund. Max Pacioretty picked at 22.
2008: Moves down from 17th to 25th. Drafts Greg Nemisz. Players picked between 17 and 24 included Jake Gardiner, Michael del Zotto, and Jordan Eberle.
2009: Moves down from 20th to 23rd. Drafts Tim Erixon. Players picked between 20 and 22 include John Moore and Jordan Schroeder.
The compensation the Flames received for trading down was also poor:
2004: received 2nd round pick (46th overall) from the Rangers. Drafted Adam Pineault (3 NHL games, 0 points)
2007: received 3rd round pick (70th overall) from the Blues. Drafted John Negrin (3 NHL, 0 goals, 1 assist)
2008: received 2nd round pick (48th overall) from LA. Drafted Mitch Wahl (0 NHL games). Acquired Michael Cammalleri. Gave up Alex Tanguay.
2009: received 3rd round pick (84th overall) from New Jersey. Traded it to LA for 3rd round pick(74th overall). Drafted Ryan Howse (0 NHL games).
|
2004: Brutal. Didn't help that the rules just changed and we ended up drafting a slow, powerforward who might've been much more effective in the old clutch and grab NHL. That said our scouts sucked on that one. He wasn't helped by a few concussions and might've actually become a role player eventually. Zajac would've been nice and we reportedly liked him as well. Bad drafting in retrospect.
2007: Not much blame here. Backlund is a decent NHLer IMO and still has upside. You can't expect to get the best player available at that slot every time. That just isn't realistic at all. Scouting isn't an exact science and there's tons of variables that go into development a great many of which the team has little to no control over. Even the best drafting teams have many shocking misses. To get a guy like Backlund out of the late first in a mediocre draft year is a win IMO. At that point in the draft your chance of getting a solid NHLer is 50/50 at best.
2008: Yep this one looks pretty bad.
2009: I don't mind this one. Erixon had good value when he decided not to sign with us and Feaster actually got a steal of a deal considering the situation he was put in by getting Horak and two 2nds (Granlund/Wotherspoon). Who knows how Erixon might've developed with us, we actually would've given him much more of a chance than NYR could and CBJ has. But I'd take Horak, Wotherspoon and Granlund over Schroeder anyways so I don't mind how the whole thing ended up for us.