The Flames have had some great draft success since Sutter stepped away as GM. Looking at 2 of the top 3 free agents this team has their most important was a 4th round pick and the third most important was a 6th round pick and these 2 players combined for 75 goals this year. This is the same scouting team that drafted Fox in the third round.
In the 5 year span of 2011-2016 the Flames drafted 2 legit superstars and a high end top 6 forward. That isn’t considering the first pairing Dman in the latter part of round 2 in 2015 or the other budding top 4 D picked at the end of the same round.
With Kirens and Wolf they may have done it again in the past couple of drafts. When you look at Tampa yes Hedmen is a huge part of that team and Stamkos as well but their core 3 of Kucherov (2nd round), Point (3rd round) and Vasilesky (back half of 1st round) were all acquired without tanking.
Treliving needs to minimize spending picks in trades and the Flames need to keep doing what they are doing when it comes to drafting and they hopefully keep a very competitive team around their stars if they are able to sign them
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