This might have been posted but a couple of interesting quotes from Button in this piece on the Athletic’s mock draft:
https://theathletic.com/5480106/2024...shared_article
On drafting Tij Iginla (a bit of double talk here)
“We have to go through the whole process too, right? So we can’t just take Tij because he’s Jarome’s son,” Button said. “We can’t let emotion get in the way of any pick we make.
“You want to be careful with reaching for somebody, right? That’s not going to happen in this case because he’s legit across the board. He’s a consensus, whatever, top-10, top-12 pick.”
On drafting a defenceman, the Flame’s beat writer, Julian McKenzie wrote that Button told him that there was a point in the season before making a few trades for defensive prospects that the Flames were leaning heavily towards a defenceman, but they’re more open now… then he’s quoted saying:
“That’s why I’m excited about nine because with the defensive group it’s going to be really intense to sort out,” Button said. “Even with the forward group, you’ve got so many different types of forwards, centermen, left wing, right wingers, right shots, left shots, skilled guys, power forwards. It honestly makes it really exciting, but it’s hard.”
There’s certainly lots of false messages sent around the draft but that sounds to me that they are leaning defence if one of the top five is available.