The rumoured 2013 draft deal of all of the Flames 2013 draft picks for the 1st overall being declined is all I really need to know. It's not that Colorado did something special with their draft picks, they just lost and won the right lotteries (or lost the right lotteries in the case of Makar).
When their best non-first round pick in the last decade so far has arguably been Will Butcher, the same Butcher that the Sabres picked up as a salary dump, it's not like they are some great drafting gurus. Newhook (16th overall) is the only player picked outside of the top 10 to establish themselves as a bonafide NHL skater since O'Reilly in 2009.
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