[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

During the draft broadcast, once of the analysts was an agent (I can't recall who it was), and he said that more and more these days, young players getting drafted, particularly ones going the university route, have specific teams they want to play for and it does affect who drafts them and when. When I see someone like Perreault (NYR) falling to 23 and Moore (CHI) falling to 19, I kind of assume that is why they may have fallen despite the pre-draft ranking of where most people have them being drafted.

I am just totally speculating, but I would bet that is why the Flames (and others) stayed away from those two. It also makes me thing that Honzek interviewed well and gave the impression that he would be happy to play in Calgary. Conroy stressed that they wanted to target players that wanted to play in Calgary, and I think that thought process likely extended into the draft. Everyone drafted after Honzek have some kind of concerns or unknowns. We are focusing on him because that is who the Flames picked, but if you dig up scouting reports for most players drafted after him, you'll find they had similar projections or potential concerns. The only 2 players drafted after Honzek that I am keeping a close eye on are Barlow and Pelikka.

Even considering all that, I think Honzek was a solid pick at #16 regardless. He was ranked by various sources to go anywhere from 10 to 24, and his aggregate was around 21 I believe, so not an off-the-board pick by any means, especially when you consider that teams have to think about other factors that scouts who only watch games, have no knowledge about.

I do think that during the interview process if a player doesn't appear to be thrilled about the prospect of joining your organization or doesn't grade out well during the session that you have to be a little cautious especially if they are going the US college route and/or are American born. Those are things that fans aren't privy to.