[bubbsy]

Of course we have few high probability prospects. The rebuild phase of this generation finished the bottoming out and becoming a playoff hopeful team years ago. Making the playoffs the year after the Bennett draft was fun and all, but one could argue flames didn't get enough or as elite a number of prospects during the bottoming out phase. Flames started making moves (see Hamilton, Hamonic trades) right away to jump out of the rebuild.

Credit to them for not taking the 'suck for a decade' approach to building the team, however, the lack of any real sustained growth and evolving of the team into a real contender is why I think so many of us, well at least myself, are so disappointed and negative. Flames finally looked great last year, won the conference (!!!!!) yet have sat in their hands instead of adding to it (not for a lack of trying by the gm of course, but...). As expected, here we are watching a regression back to the mediocre rather than improving & solidifying the team to a contender.

Anyways, most high end prospects are drafted in the top half of round 1, and if a team scouting is great, in the first round or 2.

Flames haven't drafted in the top half if round 1 in a while now, yet have grabbed guys like valimaki, Anderson, kylington, mangiapane, Dube. Given that track record, I am actually quite comfortable in a non-sexy prospect or 2 in our system to become NHLers. Pelletier, Zavgorodniy, pettersson, Phillips. Maybe not elite, but at least a few of these should round into guys that slot in at low cap players on the roster during their contending window, and that is nothing to sniff at in my opinion.

In summary : drafting and prospects in the system are a far smaller concern for me, than the state of the actual nhl team and their progress/quality given the stage of the team building cycle they are in.