Quote:
Originally Posted by Macho0978
I used Zary as an example because this is year 1 of having a team that the GM is wanting to build a team that has young players being promoted to the NHL. Zary had 58 points in 72 games and then a good start to this year in the AHL. Gets the call real early and was trending towards a 50-point rookie year. 58 in the AHL does not translate to 50 in the NHL.
Zary was a 2020 pick, Coronato was 2021. These 2 both played this year and 1 played very well. It's a bit early to criticize picks in 2020 to 2023.
2017-2019
Flames drafted:
1st - 2
2nd - 0
3rd - 1
4th-7th - 11
Valimaki and Pelletier are the 1st, Pelletier's injuries have slowed him down and Valimaki didn't get a chance but has been ok since he moved.
3 years to have 1 2nd or 3rd is not on Button.
11 picks in the late rounds have produced:
Ruzicka, Pospisil and Wolf. If Wolf becomes a #1 goalie that hitting at 11% on the late picks for high end players and if Pospisil becomes a solid 3rd liner or better, you got 2 very good players out of 11. 22% is amazing IMO.
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Yeah, I agree there wasn't a ton of opportunity under the previous coach (how Sutter handled Pelletier and even Phillips as small as he was was really poor) -- I just don't think that Zary's time in the minors hurt him and I don't think that, other than during the Sutter years and a year or two where management thought they were in a place to win, Treleving was against young players stepping in to play.
He just didn't have a lot of young players ready to take the step because he traded so many high picks. I also agree with your broader point that the scouting staff has been really fantastic with what they were given for picks.
As an aside on Valimaki, it wasn't a lack of opportunity, but the guy was injured so much during his development time and then he wasn't a top 6 d-man when he was healthy enough to get a shot. Was it wrong to send him down? Sure, him getting picked up by Arizona for free was a bad result, but him eating popcorn as a number 7 in the NHL just to protect his rights wouldn't have been good for the player or the team.