[Goriders]

The best players I have seen since I’ve watched the Flames were Iginla and Gaudreau. One aquired via trade. The other drafted in the 4th round.

The higher picks in the same time frame would be Monahan, Bennett and Tkachuk. Tkachuk being the only one that could carry his team.

Point I’m making is there are a number of teams that gutted themselves within a short window to draft higher and supposedly get better players. I’d put Buffalo, Chicago, Anahiem, San Jose in there. Last I checked they are still garbage.

You’re not going to build a team just through the draft. As I said it’s a combo of trades, free agents and drafting. I think the Flames have done a good job of drafting the last few tears. They seem to have good solid depth on defense and in net. They have a handful of forwards that are turning into solid players. But they need to fill in center depth.

I don’t think they are going to be bad enough in the near future to drop down into the top 1-5 window so I would guess they’ll be filling in those spots via trades or free agency. It does not look to me like they are going the San Jose route.