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Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan
The problem? The Flames haven't been terrible enough for a few years to pick top 3 and land some studs you can build around. Bennett is the highest pick, and he's no McDavid, or Kane, or MacKinnon, etc.
When you're middle of the pack for decades it's really tough to land those franchise players to lead your team to continued success. You either need to be really good or really terrible. The Flames have been in no-man's land for what seems like forever and it's killing them.
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I put in my vote for a tank earlier in the season, based on the fact that in the last 20 years, only one team (STL) has won a Cup without a top 2 OA pick on the roster.
that doesn't mean Calgary should not be drafting better than they have however.
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Calgary’s middling success as a drafting team is evident by looking at the 167 players the Flames selected over the 20-year period from 1997-2017. Players selected in the 2017 Draft and later can’t fairly be considered in this debate because they haven’t yet had a fair chance to make the Flames’ roster.
Only 72 of the 167 players chosen (43%) managed to play in an NHL game, but just 32, or about one in five, ever played more than 100 games in the league. This is below the figure for the NHL as a whole, where about 28% of players drafted manage to play at least 100 games. Of the 32, only 20 of them suited up in the Flaming C for 100 games. Keep in mind that 100 games is just a little more than one season in the league.
Of the 167 draftees, the number that made a significant impact in Calgary by playing more than 300 games in the Saddledome sporting a Flames’ sweater, stands at just nine (5%). Five of those nine players were Calgary first-round picks — Dion Phaneuf (ninth overall), Mikael Backlund (24th overall), Sean Monahan (sixth overall), Sam Bennett (fourth overall) and Matthew Tkachuk (sixth overall).
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https://thehockeywriters.com/flames-...ent-struggles/
When an organization struggles on the ice for as long as the Flames have, its systemic. Scouting, development, coaching, GM'ing and players are responsible for it...