Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
I think Flames did really well in this draft. They saved the "He's big and can learn to play hockey later" for the 6th round where historically most of the players that turn out are those types.
In the early rounds they acquired a lot of scoring talent which is usually the best indication of NHL upside. A lot of the guys are either first or second in scoring on their teams which means they weren't zoomed by anyone.
I think in the last ten years, drafting has been the biggest strength of the Flames organization, and this year doesn't look like an exception.
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I still can't believe we sort of reached* for Gridin, but still got Basha and Mews after that. Not to mention Battaglia and Misa after that.
The other guys I never heard of before the draft, so I am not writing them off. Zarubin in particular sounds like a diamond in the rough, but the previous mentioned 4 and Parekh were all players that looked appealing going into the draft. It was the first Flames draft for me where I wasn't asking "who" after every non-1st round pick.
* I only say "reached" because a lot of the public rankings had him going in the first half of the 2nd round, which really isn't a massive reach. But if I am being honest, I was biased by some of those public rankings and was a little disappointed at the time that we passed on Mews and Basha. To get them both anyway was amazing. And now that I have learned more about Gridin, it's only gotten better.
I know every draft is a crap shoot and I am not banking on 5 players from the same draft becoming key NHL players, but I am more optimistic than any other time in the past.