OK. I know I'm offering no real new information or opinion here, but I just want to get it off my chest.
What we know: The Flames "Big 3" D-Men are under contract for minimum 4 more years. Assuming Gio keeps his level of play up for four more years we're all going to be very very happy with this group.
Corollary: In the short and medium term we have only these spots to fill on our back-end: one 3-4 pairing D-Man, two 5-6 pairing D-Men
(For argument's sake I'm going to say you can always get a Diaz / Schlemko for under $1M for the #7 spot, so really we need 3 D-men over the next four years.)
Here's our list of prospects in a very loose tiered ranking:
Ready (or almost ready) Now:
Nakladal - 28 yrs old
Jokipakka - 24 yrs old
Wotherspoon - 23 yrs old
Culkin - 22 yrs
Kulak - 22 yrs
Huge medium-term upside:
Andersson - 19 yrs
Kylington - 19 yrs
Hickey - 20 yrs
Others I can't place:
Sieloff - 22 yrs
Morrison - 24 yrs
Kanzig - 21 yrs
Conclusion: When I look above, I see multiple options for our #4 D-Man and multiple (cheap) options for our 5-6 pairing. ** I do not want to invest our first round pick in a defenseman! **
Please pick a forward Flames. I love the depth we've already built a "D" and have no problems adding two more during this draft, just not at #6 (or higher or lower)
/vent
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