Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
If the Flames indeed were guilty of not giving young dmen enough opportunity, would the best evidence of this not be seeing those D moving on to become productive NHLers elsewhere? Absent that I'm not sure it is something backed by much evidence.
I agree with those that maintain guys have been given opportunity and just haven't grabbed - likely because they simply aren't good enough. And part of that simply is they haven't drafted many dmen high.
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It bears mentioning that the Flames have not drafted a defenseman in the first round of the entry draft since 2009 (that is one defenseman in eight selections), and only three since 2000. We shouldn't be altogether surprised that there have only been a handful to graduate.