Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
There are too many things in play here to apply this to one pick in one draft and predict future success. Scouting staff's change, GM's change. The player pool in each respective draft pool changes. Recent data does seem to suggest that the Flames have been finding players after round one when given some picks to work with.
Since 2017 the only player picked by the Flames who has played a NHL game is Valimaki. Mangiapane is the only guy since the 2013 draft picked after round 2 who has played any games as a Flame. Adam Fox would still count too here. So that's two guys in the last 8 drafts.
Naratives can always be changed to suit someone's personal view on a topic. Again it's nice to get an extra pick and the circumstances do sting the OIlers which is better.
Either way I dislike Neal, and when Lucic scores and does what looks like a Tuscan Raider celebration it brings a smile to my face. I'd rather the team never had to deal for him. But I'm happy for him when he does score. Seems like ever since he started doing that, he looks like he's having fun, and he's getting to do that celebration a bit more. I'd like to see more of it. As a person Lucic is a guy I like seeing do well.
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The Flames didn't pick until the fourth round in 2018. Pelletier and Zary both look like very solid late first round picks.
You can fault the GM/owners for trying to win to early. I'm not sure how you can possibly fault the scouting staff. Since 2015, the Flames drafting has been dynamite. They made the solid picks in the first and pulled some pure gems out of the 2nd round. Andersson, Dube, and Fox in the 2nd round is top notch. Pulling two potential top pairing d-men in that short of a time span is actually pretty incredible. Too bad things didn't work out with Fox, but that's more a function of the BS college rules. I can't imagine any other professional sport just letting a draft pick walk because they played in college.