Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Dallas might be one of the best drafting team in the NHL right now in terms of bang for buck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleK
It's crazy how good that team is at drafting. Virtually every d man they select turns out to be elite.
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It does seem like Dallas has been drafting really well, and there is no question that they knocked it out of the park in 2017, taking Heiskanen (3), Oettinger (26), and Robertson (39) with 3 picks in the top 40.
And with that comment about defensemen (I have had similar thoughts), I thought I would take a look and see just how much better they have been at drafting D-men than the Flames have been. So I looked at the last 10 years, and the Stars have drafted 24 defensemen, with 4 first round selections, and the Flames have drafted 18 D-men, with 1 first rounder. Here is a list of the players that have played at least 1 game in the NHL:
Dallas - Picks: 24. Played an NHL game: 3
14, 2014, Honka, 87 (pick, year, player, games played)
3, 2017, Heiskanen, 307
18, 2019, Harley, 34
Calgary - Picks: 18, Played an NHL game: 5
198, 2013, Gilmour, 37
60, 2015, Kylington, 168
53, 2015, Andersson, 333
66, 2016, Fox, 238
16, 2017, Valimaki, 110
The only defenseman the Stars have drafted in the last 10 years, that is an established NHLer is Heiskanen, who was drafted 3OA. All 3 of the D-men that have played an NHL game were first rounders.
By comparison, the Flames have done substantially better, and have done so with 2nd and 3rd round picks.
If we go a little further back (15 years), we can add Klingberg and Oleksiak and a couple other lesser names for the Stars, and Brodie and Kulak for the Flames, and the total number of established NHLers evens out.
The Stars have drafted more defensemen, and have used more first round picks on defensemen, but other than Heiskanen (who was the #3 pick), it is difficult to make the case that Dallas has done better drafting defensemen than the Flames have. And outside of the first round, I would definitely give the edge to the Flames.
(Note: DAL used their first 4 picks in the 2022 draft on defensemen, so they may see some results from that, in the future)