Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
...The bottom line is the minor league system is a mess and is the midst of a crash. We are about to feel the pinch of the 2017 and 2018 drafts where we were short on top picks and haven't been able to filter players into the system. Those are two straight years where we were limited on picks is going to hurt, especially when the majority of those players selected were small. That 2018 draft saw us draft five players, and only one of them was over six feet. This is the reality we face and no spin is going to change that. Its one of the reasons Treliving has been aggressive in the college free agent market. We need the bodies even if they are very long shots to make it to the NHL.
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I think you are totally wrong about this. I agree that the Flames had a hole in their system as a result of a shortage of picks, but unlike you, I think they have done a very good job compensating for it. The kids playing in the minors look just fine, and there is a pretty high number of prospects that have outperformed their draft positions from the last several years. The college free agent and prospect-depth acquisitions have also been pretty solid. Mackey and Gawdin have played NHL games, and Johannes Kinvall was one of the best defensemen in the SHL before suffering a long-term ankle injury.
I think the system is fine, especially considering what the Flames have had to work with. They continue to graduate players to the NHL every year; those players continue to impress.