The point I'm making isn't to re litigate the picks, it's to look at the entirety of it and question whether anaheim and tampa walking away from that draft with more than one home run comes down to both of those teams picking more in that draft than the flames did. This was the underlying point about holding onto bennett too long.
If the Flames have 6 picks instead of 5, do they walk away with josh manson or ondrej palat or andrew shaw?
If they have 9 picks instead of 5 do they get more than one of those guys?
We'll never know, because i'm pretty sure the team has only drafted more than 7 times once in the last decade. Lo and behold, it looks like the most bountiful draft the flames have had in about the same time period. One of the steals looks to be a 3rd round pick (fox) and a 6th round pick (Calgary's second of the round) Matt Phillips.
In the 2015 draft the Bruins, arguably the class of the league, drafted 10 times total, including SIX times in the first two rounds. They've got 198 games of NHL game play out of the draft. Sure, the Flames got Hamilton, great trade, would make it again, but the fact remains the Flames are looking 13 total games played from that draft where they picked 5 times and only twice in the first 4 rounds.
Sure, they have 200+ games from Hamilton. But the Flames are paying a premium for those games.
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