Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Regardless of looking back at the last era, you have to look at where we are now.
We have zero stars. We need the draft picks to get our stars. The last era was defined by some excellent value being extracted out of less than ideal draft spost - getting Tkachuk at 6th is excellent work, getting Monahan at 6th was great, and even getting Bennett (what Bennett has turned into) at 4th is far from a disaster.
You know what they didn't get though? MacKinnon, or Barkov, or Draisaitl, or Ekblad, Makar, Hedman, Stamkos etc. The spots that they got to draft from, while they did good - did not give the Flames a good enough opportunity to become a Championship quality team.
The Flames, outside of getting their top-3 picks, did everything as well as could be expected but they could not overcome the skill deficit that they were facing due to a lack of having the opportunity to make Championship-quality picks.
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But the Flames never have any luck too, If you compare Florida 5 year run at the bottom where they drafted top 3 4 times vs the Flames 4 years run at the bottom where the drafted top 3 0 times.
Florida's run:
2009-10 - 77 points - picks Gudbranson 3rd OV
2010-11 - 72 points - picks Huberdeau 3rd OV
2011-12 - 94 points - makes playoffs
2012-13 - 62 points (point pace) - picks Barkov 2nd OV
2013-14 - 66 points - picks Ekblad 1st OV
Flames run:
2012-13 - 72 points - picks Monahan 6th OV
2013-14 - 77 points - picks Bennett 4th OV
2014-15 - 97 points - makes playoffs
2015-16 - 77 points - picks Tkachuk 6th OV
Florida stays at the bottom longer and has 2 years a good 10 point lower than the rest of the rebuild. But they also have 2 years mid 70's in points, yet still get 3rd OV.
Both teams have a random good season, but Florida make the playoffs in a year where the draft is terrible. Flames have a random great year when the top of the draft is loaded with superstars.
In the end a bit of luck could have helped but the Flames never dipped into that 60-point range that is needed. They really screwed that up in those 1dt 2 years of the rebuild. Getting Tkachuk worked out as he probably is the 2nd best player from that draft. The Flames missed out on a guy like Makar too by moving up the standings 1 year too soon.