I'm gonna start with my definition of blue chip, a guy you are confident will be a top6 forward, top4 d, starting goalie. In the Flames Org you currently have Bennett, and I think in some peoples opinions Poirier and Gillies might be borderline blue chip,
Baertschi probably would have been a blue chip prospect in the past but has faded. Any other prospect I might define a vary good prospect, but not blue chip.
They way I see it, if your drafting in the top 10.
Forwards probably give you about a 75% chance at a good blue chip player,
D give you about a 50% chance,
and goalies give you about a 25% chance.
Mostly because on the development curve forwards are allot closer to their prime at draft age.
Elite forwards seem to hit their prime around 23-24 years old.
D at about 26 years.
and goalies at about 28 years old.
So to definitely get a real blue chip prospect you need to burn 2 top ten draft picks in a row on D. Which most teams don't have and is often really hard to do when your odds of hitting with a forward are so much higher.
The rest of the draft statistically is a bit of a crap shoot, so all you can do is invest in drafting and development. There are teams that seem to be able to do it consistently for the D position like Nashville & Arizona. It seems like for 12 they are always bringing exciting young defenders into the league. But both teams have struggled develop forwards for some reason.
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