[CF84]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Button has been Director of Scouting since 2000-01. So I decided to look at the first team on HockeyDB for comparison. Surprisingly they have had almost the same number of picks during Button's window (2001 on). I did not include the last two drafts because players have not really started to work their way into the NHL yet.

Anaheim (48/154 - .311 batting average)

Top players: Ryan Getzlaf (1157), Corey Perry (1311), Bobby Ryan (866), Justin Schultz (745), Sami Vatanan (473), Kyle Palmeri (818), Cam Fowler (974), William Carlsson (685), John Gibson (477), Richard Rakell (721), Hampus Lindholm (745), Frederick Andersen (495), Shea Theodore (497), Trevor Zegras (211), Jamie Drysdale (147)

Role players: Stansislov Chistov (196), Martin Gerber (229), PA Parenteau (491), Tim Brent (207), Joffrey Lupul (701), Shane O'Brien (537), Drew Miller (571), Ladislav Smid (538), Tim Brent (207), Brendan Mikkelson (131), Matt Beleskey (477), Eric Tangradi (150), Steven Kampfer (231), Jake Gardiner (645), Brandon MacMillian (171), Peter Holland (266), Emerson Etem (173), Devante Smith-Pelly (395), Chris Wagner (373), Josh Manson (578), Jaycob Megna (185), Nick Ritchie (481), Marcus Petterson (444), Brandon Montour (520), Ondrej Kase (258), Jacob Larsson (172), Troy Terry (350), Max Jones (258), Sam Steel (339), Josh Mahura (191), Maxime Comtois (211), Isaac Lundestrom (258), Mason MacTavish (153)

versus

Calgary (29/153 - .189 batting average)

Top players: Dion Phaneuf (1048), TJ Brodie (908), Johnny Gaudreau (763), Sean Monahan (764), Rasmus Andersson (455), Matthew Tkachuk (590), Adam Fox (357)

Role players: Chuck Kobasew (601), David Moss (501), Curtis McElhinney (249), Eric Nystrom (593), Matthew Lombardi (536), Brandon Prust (486), Dustin Boyd (220), Adam Pardy (342), Adam Cracknell (210), Lance Bouma (357), Michael Ferland (355), Sven Baertschi (292), Markus Granlund (335), Laurent Brossoit (140), Mark Jankowski (354), Brett Kulak (498), Sam Bennett (615), Oliver Kylington (201), Andrew Mangiapane (417), Dillon Dube (325), Adam Ruzicka (117) Juuso Valimaki (228)

Some may say that Anaheim has had a positional advantage in the draft, drafting earlier more often, but they have had more peaks and valleys than the Flames. The average draft position for Calgary is 120 versus 104 for Anaheim. Anaheim drafts a little earlier on average but hits all over the draft with more consistency.

I don't see Calgary getting better or having better drafts. What I see is recency bias coming to the fore and giving the impressions the Flames are better. Remember the excitement over the 2021 draft and all the great young talent we scooped up? Yeesh, that was ugly in retrospect. It's not all Button's fault, but I definitely think the Flames performance at the draft table has not been near as good as people are suggesting or trying to build up. I think it is easy to see why one team has won a cup and the other has not.

I have a few things to contest here. First, I think you've missed the 2007 draft for the Flames with Mikael Backlund and Keith Aulie which brings the batting average to 31/153 or .203. Second, players like Zary would have more games on a lousy Anaheim team while players like Jamie Drysdale would just be getting their first opportunity on the Flames keeping them under 100 games. Jacob Larsson may have never even cracked the Flames D. The Ducks have been terrible long enough that they have players playing above their skill level and the Flames have just entered that portion of their re-build/re-tool. By next season we should see all of Coronato, Zary, Pelletier, and Pospisil on the list and the following season we should see Wolf and one or two others. It's just that part of the ebb and flow of prospects joining a system combined with the on average worse drafting position of the Flames. The Ducks have had been in a rebuild for a few years (arguably 4 or 5) and it shows when compared to the Flames 1 year.


Also, do the Flames scouts get any credit with a player like Giordano or did he have to knock on the door himself begging for a chance?

The Flames made some horrible choices in the early 2000s, but I've had much more hope since around 2015. Button and the scouting department do seem to have an eye for what makes an excellent defenseman in drafting Andersson, Kylington, Fox, and even lower picks like Solovyov. I have a bit less confidence in their ability to draft star forwards outside the 1st round which would be great.

A draft position of 120 vs 104 is pretty significant. I'd be pretty upset if the Flames only picked at a 120 quality and the Ducks always got a quality of 104 and then both were judged on their performance as if position shouldn't matter.

To the bolded: The Flames came literally closer than any NHL team has ever come to winning a cup without actually winning it in the same time frame.