[Caged Great]

The main thing to consider is the insane amount of forward depth that the Flames have at the upper end of the prospect pool and the fact we have 6 picks in the top 90 in a couple weeks. There simply won't be enough room for everyone to play in the NHL in Calgary. The Flames only have 12 forward roster spots and about 20 forwards that are of a quality that they should be able to play at least some role at the NHL level in the near future. It is both a positive, but also a difficult thing as they will have to make trades involving some of them.

We have Monahan, Bennett, Colborne, Jooris, Bouma, Granlund, Jankowski, Arnold, and Reinhart up the middle. We have Gaudreau, Ferland, Klimchuk, and Agostino on the left side and Shore, Poirier, Smith, Carroll, Hathaway, and Harrison on the right side. That is a huge list of names and most if not all could play in the NHL some day.

The Flames could quite easily deal 3 or 4 quality prospects and still have a deep forward pool. Now, if Kessel is a good fit is yet to be determined, but the Flames should be in the mode now where if a very good player comes available that is under the age of 30, they should be kicking the tires much like the Kings when they acquired both Richards and Carter.

The Kings gave up B Schenn, Simmons + 2nd round pick in 2012 for Richards
They gave up Jack Johnson + 1st for Carter

Calgary could realistically match those proposals with say Poirier + Klimchuk + Granlund for Kessel. Would that impact our prospects pool significantly? yes, but not by a huge amount. We would easily be able to replace those assets with other guys in this draft. If the Flames drafted forwards with 3 of the picks in the top 2 rounds, they would be able to match the talent levels of those three players (yes, it is that nuts).