The Draft Analyst (Sporting News) Give Flames Draft Grade A-

[cral12]

Excerpt:

Calgary Flames
Grade: A-

"The Flames’ biggest maneuver this weekend had nothing to do with draft prospects, as they traded Dougie Hamilton, Michael Ferland and prospect Adam Fox on Day 2 to Carolina for Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. The move made sense, especially when you consider the Flames weren’t picking until the fourth round anyway. All five of their picks were hard-working forwards with above-average puck skills who could provide either offense or defense, or both. Slovak center Martin Pospisil (105th) is reliable in all three zones and can match up against anyone, and Minnesota high schooler Demetrios Koumontzis (108th) not only oozes speed and finesse, but he also hammers the puck and is strong on his skates for an undersized forward. They receive first-round quality in Slovakian pivot Milos Roman (122nd), and both Mathias Petterson (167th) and Dmitry Zavgorodniy (198th) combine playmaking, skill and relentless pressure on the puck."

LINK

Oilers Fans furious on Twitter : )

@Jfmj93

"How does the sporting news give the Oilers draft a ranking of B. But the Flames and Habs get A-? The Flames didn’t have a ####en draft."

The author replies:

Steve Kournianos
@TheDraftAnalyst

"Easy. Flames had no picks until the 4th but still took five skilled players and two were in my top 43. (Link to his rankings)

Oilers had three solid picks. Flames had five. They get the higher grade because they made something out of nothing.

Habs had a better draft than Edmonton."

[Enoch Root]

Quality thread, just for "Oiler fans furious"

Also, nice to hear that the author liked our picks.

[Roof-Daddy]

I'm loving that it seems the Flames took a lot of speedy, skilled, hard working forwards with their picks this year. Going to be fun following them this season.

[devo22]

big fan of drafting skilled boom-or-bust prospects late in the draft. Much rather have guys like Matthew Phillips and Dimitri Zavgorodniy in the system than the Riley Bruces and Austin Carrolls.

[topfiverecords]

Isn’t not picking 1st overall an F for the Oilers?

[Nelson]

Thank you very much for posting this. It is very encouraging to read as I didn't really know much about the prospects the Flames drafted.

[Robbob]

Yeah thanks for posting, to be honest, it has been more than a few days and I really don't know much of anything about who we drafted.

[David Struch]

Calgary Flames Draft History

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00005090.html

[Itse]

Originally Posted by David Struch

Calgary Flames Draft History

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00005090.html

Looking at that, it's pretty clear improvement is still in the "we're hoping things will be better" stage rather than "things have clearly improved" stage.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by david struch

calgary flames draft history

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00005090.html

lol @ 2006

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Itse

Looking at that, it's pretty clear improvement is still in the "we're hoping things will be better" stage rather than "things have clearly improved" stage.

I personally think since 2015 things are easily in the "things have clearly improved" stage.

2014 was Treliving's first draft in charge and grit & size were clearly emphasized that year - it didn't work.

Since then though I think skill and speed have been the key things they are looking for.

2015: Andersson, Kylington, Mangiapane
2016: Tkachuk, Parsons, Dube, Fox, Phillips (Tuuola & Lindstrom to a lesser extent)
2017: Valimaki, Ruzicka, Joly
2018: TBD but Koumontzis, Roman, Pettersen, Zavgorodniy all look to be high risk, high reward swings on uber talented guys. And Pospisil was a PPG in the second half of his season in the USHL once he calmed down on the game misconducts.

If you can get 2-3 guys that look like "real NHL prospects" each draft then that is actually pretty good.

The problem since then IMO hasn't been our drafting, it's been that we haven't had enough picks in the first 3 rounds (2016 being the exception).

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Itse

Looking at that, it's pretty clear improvement is still in the "we're hoping things will be better" stage rather than "things have clearly improved" stage.

I think it is on the verge. I think you try to get a decent roster player per draft. Obviously much harder when you trade out of the first round. There are some drafts there that are intriguing and you hope pan out with an extra player, if not for anything else but an asset to trade.

[Two Fivenagame]

Still seems odd to me that the Flames didn't move players to add more picks.

I guess it shows our depth is really that poor when you can't move some pieces for extra 3rds, 4ths and 5ths?

[BurningYears]

Originally Posted by Icon

lol @ 2006

2011 is pretty good tho

[neo45]

Originally Posted by Itse

Looking at that, it's pretty clear improvement is still in the "we're hoping things will be better" stage rather than "things have clearly improved" stage.

Really? I see a clear improvement.


In the sense that we went for mediocre to slightly about league average. From 2011-2016 (hard to judge 17 and 18), it seems like we got two good drafts for each bad..

[madmike]

Originally Posted by Two Fivenagame

Still seems odd to me that the Flames didn't move players to add more picks.

I guess it shows our depth is really that poor when you can't move some pieces for extra 3rds, 4ths and 5ths?

Who would you move for a 3rd, 4th or 5th? Stone is the only one I could think of and that doesn't seem like a worthwhile return. Janko and Bennett are worth more than that. No one will touch Brouwer with that contract. And the 4th liners are pretty much all FAs.


The rest of the Flames depth is young players like Mangiapane, Anderson, Valimaki, Kylington, etc. - who again are all worth more than a 3rd.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by David Struch

Calgary Flames Draft History

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00005090.html

ok so there was a 25 year span of crap, but lets talk about the 80s for a second


I would imagine few teams have ever had such a decade (while never picking in the top 10!)
MacInnis, Makarov, Hull, Nieuwendyk (HOF x4)
Vernon, Fleury, Loob, Suter, Roberts
Quinn, Bradley, Reichel, Ranheim, Konroyd
Matteau, Berezan, Lamb, Grimson, Manderville, Lavallee, Glynn, Hrdina, Drury


Plus adding Otto, Macoun, Patterson, Beers and others as college FAs


sigh

[Johnny Makarov]

The beginning of the end for the Flames back in the mid 90s was switching from drafting Russians and Swedes and Czechs to drafting grinders from the WHL.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Two Fivenagame

Still seems odd to me that the Flames didn't move players to add more picks.

I guess it shows our depth is really that poor when you can't move some pieces for extra 3rds, 4ths and 5ths?

I think the Flames tried to do a deal with the Rangers for Hayes + a late 1st but the Rangers weren't biting.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by David Struch

Calgary Flames Draft History

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00005090.html

Interesting list. The Flames first rounders have been garbage for almost twenty years with a few exceptions.