Will be interesting in the next few drafts of this rebuild/retool to see if the flames shift much in their approach to drafting Americans - especially those committed to playing in the NCAA. I’m sure it’s just fans like us that are paranoid about it after the experiences with Fox, Gaudreau, Tkachuk and now (somewhat) Hanifin. But these were all skilled young Americans who the flames wanted to make part of their core that all wanted to play for teams in the states.
I’m not saying the flames will never draft Americans because of this. I’m sure they will draft the BPA - especially if their rankings are very clear and the player they like at their draft spot is better than anyone else on their list. But if the scouts tell management it’s pretty close between two guys at their pick and one guy is from Medicine Hat while the other is from upstate New York, will the flames lean more to the former even if the latter is slightly better according to the scouts? We have seen teams hesitant to draft Russian players committed to playing in KHL because of concerns they will not want to come to North America. Obviously we are a long way off from that with American players but the flames have been burned by this trend of American players wanting to play in America more than any other NHL team in recent memory. Frustrating because it seems the flames have a good scouting department and they have found some great players out of the states over the years.
I’m hoping it does not keep the flames from drafting skilled young players like Hutson, for example. At the same time, I’m sure I (along with other fans) will be a little nervous about American players drafted out of the USHL that are committed to playing in the NCAA… at least until they sign.
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