[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

Though it didn't turn out, you need context when it comes to Kanzig.

Kanzig was atrocious in his first year in the WHL on the Royals. Bona fide enforcer, and not much else. He played bottom pairing minutes and sucked.

In his draft year, he improved and kept moving up, and was routinely on the top pairing playing against the best players IIRC.

The Flames were holding their meetings in Vancouver with their scouting staff and the brass. They hopped the ferry and took in some Royals games - Button wanted to see what everyone else thought of Kanzig. Everyone apparently really liked him - they liked his size (of course), but also his defensive awareness, his leadership, his maturity (they spoke to people around the organization) and everything came back super positive.

Kanzig just didn't take that step, for whatever reason, after a MASSIVE increase in his development. He was an amazingly committed player as well (and his physique showed it). I think it was a fine gamble... if he did take a couple of steps, who knows how important he would have been to the Flames. It is just for whatever reason, he didn't progress (much), but at the time - and with context - I don't think it was a bad gamble.

Also, judging by Button's take on things and how the Flames seem to operate, they keep their eyes open for other teams' scouts and try to figure out who they are watching and how much they like him, and try and guess what rounds that teams take players in. They guessed right on Gaudreau, missed out on Kucherov, got it right with Jankowski, etc. Kanzig might not have been available later in the draft, though in hindsight that would have been a positive.

Yeah that's fine and all but Central scouting had him ranked as the 112 North American skater and the Flames picked him 67th overall. It's one thing to like a prospect but part of being a good drafting team is to value your picks and not reach on low ranked prospects. There's no reason they couldn't have used the 3rd round pick on another player and picked Kanzig in the 4th or 5th round. If the Flames actually had a 3rd round grade on Kanzig then to me that's an indictment on their scouting and evaluation.