Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Treliving has repeatedly said the Flames are looking for a player with a high ceiling. To me, that suggests Kostin or Vesalainen.
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Liljegren stand out to me as fitting that comment, huge upside. I mean lots of players have high ceilings. Juuso Valkimaki scored 19 goals and 61 points in the WHL, pretty good for a 6'2 defensemen eh? Sounds like his upside is a top 3 defenseman.
Really, really skeptical they would go with Kostin. Neither Mackenzie or Button has him in their top 17. We haven't drafted a Russian in the top 6 rounds in 15 years. Let me repeat that, 15 years! We did draft a Belarussian in the 5th round recently but he was playing in the WHL. What do we even have for Russian scouts? We have no Russian players to help him acclimatize. I guess we were eyeing up Kucherov that one year so its clear we would consider a Russian if they were exceptional. But even still I'd bet money against Kostin personally.