While the picks are not final we have a much clearer position of where this team stands now vs when I created this thread early in the season. 5 of the 7 UFA’s from the end of last season were traded for younger players and picks. The Toffoli trade aged very well for Calgary, they knocked the Lindholm trade out of the park. Hanifin got them an unprotected pick a couple of years into the future and an intriguing older prospect. Tanev brought back a prospect and a pick.
Flames will likely draft 9th but could pick 1, 2, 10, 11 depending on the lottery results. A win would be epic and accelerate the retool but they should be landing their top prospect with the 9th pick.
In 2013 Iggy, Kipper, and Bouw were moved/retired and there was a definitive passing of the guard and a new regime that was going to be established lead by Gio. Now we still have Backlund leading the way with guys like Weegar, Kadri, Huberdeau, Andersson, Coleman leading as the veteran group. Markstrom appears to be the next veteran on the way out. The flames pick twice in the first round of this draft and twice in the 2nd.
Very different scenarios. The Feaster/Trelviing tear down/build up got them to the playoffs in second full year after the tear down and it seems the ownership group wants a similar turnaround with the Conroy lead team. With Wolf, Zary, Coronato, Pospisil making various levels of impact this year and more prospects coming it seems like this regime is better set up for a turnaround but at the same time the lack of high end talent could make this a longer more painful rebuild unless they hit a draft out of the park (Dallas model) or they get lucky and win the lottery.
I am excited to see what this roster looks like after the draft and free agency. I do think the team is definitely in a better position to turn things around now than they were in 2013
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