Quote:
Originally Posted by TheScorpion
I don't think it takes much deliberation to tie the Flames' unwillingness to be truly bad with the way they handled coming out of the late 1990s.
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Expansion was a major factor in the 90s.
In 1992, the Flames missed the playoffs for the first time since moving to Calgary. They had the 4th-worst record among the non-playoff teams, but they picked 6th overall because Tampa and Ottawa were given the top 2 picks. Also, San Jose was one of the worst expansion teams ever. Take the three expansion teams out of the mix and the Flames are picking 3rd overall.
Then, the next time the Flames missed the playoffs was 1997, beginning a 7-year stretch outside the postseason. That was the last year before the next round of expansion.
In 1998, they dropped from 5th to 6th because of Nashville. In 1999, they dropped from 8th to 9th because of Atlanta. In 2000, they went from 7th to 9th because of the additions of Minnesota and Columbus.
If you take those 4 expansion teams out of the 2000 draft, the Flames could have taken Scott Hartnell 5th overall, rather than Krahn 9th.
In the 90s, the league expanded by 9 teams in less than a decade. Those expansion teams were usually really bad for multiple years. They basically clogged up the top of the draft for years.