2024 NHL Draft Thread

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Drake

The Ruck twins (Liam and Markus) on a line with McKenna next year might be downright terrifying to play against; who knows if it happens. Lol

Haha yeah. It'll be interesting to see what the Tigers do because they have three 20 year old Dmen and three 19 year old forwards, so in theory they could bring back every forward next season if they wanted to which is pretty scary for a team that is already one of the top offensive teams in the league.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Drake

The Ruck twins (Liam and Markus) on a line with McKenna next year might be downright terrifying to play against; who knows if it happens. Lol

Harsanyi is pretty good too.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Harsanyi is pretty good too.

And Mrsic is only 17 and no slouch either.

[Flamesfan05]

Just don’t draft in Europe again

William Stromgren, Toppi Ronni? So bad

[Ped]

I was reading about the Patrick Roy trade the other day, and how the Habs had apparently almost traded him to Quebec for Fiset and Nolan, and it made me look up the Nordiques draft record.


For 7 straight years, the Nords had top-10 picks, including 3 straight 1st overalls, as well as 3 top-5 picks, including twice in the same year. THey hit (largely on the 1sts, with Sundin, Nolan, and Lindros.


But the other picks? Woof.


1987 Bryan Fogarty 9th overall (his issues are well known now, but they made up for it by grabbing Sakic at 15th)
1988 Curtis Leschyshyn 3rd overall (decent blueliner, but no offense) and then Daniel Dore 5th overall
1989 Sundin (and Adam Foote in the 2nd round)
1990 Nolan (and then Andrei Kovalenko and Alex Karpovtsev in later rounds)
1991 Lindros (and some guys that played games, like Bill Lindsay, Rene Corbet, Dave Karpa, and Janne Laukkanen
1992 Todd Warriner 4th overall (they drafted Manny Fernandez in the 2nd and Anson Carter in the 10th, but neither did anything with this team)
1993 Jocelyn Thibault 10th overall (which they turned into Roy, partially, and then Adam Deadmarsh at 14th overall


But a lot of misses. Wade Belak and Jeff Kealty in 1994. 2nd round picks like Ryan Hughes, Paul Brousseau, Tuomas Gronman, Ashley Buckberger. And prior to this 7-year run, their 1st round picks were:


1981 Randy Moller
1982 David Shaw
1984 Trevor Stienburg
1985 David Latta
1986 Ken McRae


And really, when they moved to Colorado, their 1st round picks were:


1995 Marc Denis
1996 Peter Ratchuk
1997 Kevin Grimes
1999 Mikhail Kuleshov
2000 Vaclav Nedorost
2002 Jonas Johansson
2004 Wojtek Wolski
2006 Chris Stewart.


Luckily, in all that mediocrity, they had 1998, where they had 4 1st round picks (Alex Tanguay, Martin Skoula, Robyn Regehr, and Scott Parker)

[868904]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Just don’t draft in Europe again

William Stromgren, Toppi Ronni? So bad

The European amateur scouting has been horrendous for years. Kylington is the only drafted player who turned into anything and he was highly touted to begin with meaning there really wasn’t much “unearthing” required.

Rasmus and Solo both played in the CHL. Same for Ruzicka. Klapka and Pospisil both were initially scouted in the USHL.

Flames need more and better European scouts.

[Ziggy Lidstrom]

Originally Posted by 868904

The European amateur scouting has been horrendous for years. Kylington is the only drafted player who turned into anything and he was highly touted to begin with meaning there really wasn’t much “unearthing” required.

Rasmus and Solo both played in the CHL. Same for Ruzicka. Klapka and Pospisil both were initially scouted in the USHL.

Flames need more and better European scouts.

We really aren’t mining anything of note from over there are we? It’s pretty abysmal actually. And to hear that we had one pro scout all these years really shows you this ownership group isn’t committed to para - roster investments. Sutter was a strange hire but beyond that this team doesn’t pay for coaching or scouting. Sad strategy leaves the team sad. Our CHL scouting and some American scouting has been decent though.

[Sandman]

I actually read a few years ago that the Flames had one of the top-5 (I believe we were 3rd) biggest scouting staffs in the league. Not sure how we measure up these days.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by 868904

The European amateur scouting has been horrendous for years. Kylington is the only drafted player who turned into anything and he was highly touted to begin with meaning there really wasn’t much “unearthing” required.

Rasmus and Solo both played in the CHL. Same for Ruzicka. Klapka and Pospisil both were initially scouted in the USHL.

Flames need more and better European scouts.

Yeah it makes it much harder to build a team when you are depending on all your draft hits to solely come out of North American leagues. It's an area the team badly needs to improve on especially now that they are rebuilding (the team may not admit it but their record in the standings will dictate in the coming years).

[1qqaaz]

The Flames have had a fairly large amateur scouting staff, but they've also had the league's smallest pro scouting staff. At least that was the case as of a couple of years ago.

[Canada 02]

The Flames added a third European scout a few months ago, Denis Grebeshkov.
David Akerblom has been with the Flames since 2021
Robert Neuhauser has been around the longest, since 2017/

Ari Haanpaa is gone; he was around ~13 years, 2010 to 2022
Bobby Hagelin is gone; he was here from 2013 to 2021

[calculoso]

I learned in this article on the Score that this 2024 draft will be the last huge event. They will go to dispersed/ virtual drafts after. I don’t know if this has been brought up separately and I missed it, or if it is new info:

https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/2785537
“It'll also mark the final draft before decentralizing, Dreger adds. Each team's key front office members have typically attended the NHL draft, but after 2024, it'll operate similarly to the NFL draft, where each team makes its picks from a remote war room.”

This is disappointing to me. While it will definitely save on costs, we soon wont have the “x is crossing the draft floor” drama and suspense that we’ve had in the past. Plus the experience for the draftees in the first/second round will be worse.

[8sPOT]

I think copying the NFL is a smart move here, the NFL is a money making machine and they're not afraid to make big changes to improve the game/bottom line.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

The Flames added a third European scout a few months ago, Denis Grebeshkov.
David Akerblom has been with the Flames since 2021
Robert Neuhauser has been around the longest, since 2017/

Ari Haanpaa is gone; he was around ~13 years, 2010 to 2022
Bobby Hagelin is gone; he was here from 2013 to 2021

Does Loob still have a role with the organization? I remember he was head of European Scouting for the Flames. There was something about him leaving the organization, however. Anyone know what happened?


Also, there should be some talk about maybe getting Loob into the Hockey Hall of Fame. I don't think he has played long enough in the NHL, but he has had an illustrious playing career, and even has an award in Sweden named after him. It is the Hockey Hall of Fame after all, not just the NHL Hall of Fame.

[Canada 02]

Loob's last year of record with the Flames staff was the 2020/21 season

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

And Mrsic is only 17 and no slouch either.

Holy moly. Can’t believe the Tigers got Jack Kachkowski to commit these week.

If he hadn't show NCAA interest leading up and to the the 22 Bantam Draft he would have been a first round pick. That team should stream roll the WHL for the next few years. Lol

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Drake

Holy moly. Can’t believe the Tigers got Jack Kachkowski to commit these week.

If he hadn't show NCAA interest leading up and to the the 22 Bantam Draft he would have been a first round pick. That team should stream roll the WHL for the next few years. Lol

Yep the Tigers made out like bandits taking that risk. 1st round talent in the 5th round, and now they have added a very key piece for the championship hopes in the next couple seasons. Losing three 20 year old D after this year was going to be tough to overcome, this will help tremendously.

[1qqaaz]

Zeev Buium is an interesting player to keep an eye on.
He's a 5'11" defenseman playing in the NCAA. 25 points in only 18 games so far as a rookie. This is some of the best production for a rookie NCAA defenseman since the 1970s.

From The Hockey News: "His early returns against NCAA competition have been incredible. Buium is producing at a rate we haven’t seen from a draft-eligible defender since the 1970s – and the offensive side of the puck may not even be his best trait."

He was just awarded the NCAA player of the month for November. Buium is from San Diego and is apparently of Romanian heritage.

His rankings vary quite widely. Around 10 to 20. Though he's moved up quite quickly. Many are starting to call him the best defenseman in the draft. If this is the case, I wouldn't be surprised to see him move up further.

My NHL Draft has him ranked #14:
Scott Wheeler - The Athletic - August 14th: "He’s a plus-level skater who plays a very involved game in all three zones, whether that’s activating into the rush or off the point, shaking pressure on exits or across the blue line, working in and out of give-and-gos, or playing tight gaps against the rush."

Corey Pronman - The Athletic - July 5th: "Buium is a strong skating defenseman who can make a lot of plays and run a power play. He often ran PP1 for a strong U.S. NTDP group this past season. The younger brother of Detroit pick Shai Buium is an undersized defenseman though, and whether he can defend versus pros is a question."

[Sandman]

That’s incredible production!! Thanks for that write-up. I’m a bit familiar with his brother Shai, who’s much bigger, but putting up nice numbers in his own right. ( nothing like his brother though)

[Tacoman]

My son is Zeev’s teammate in Denver so I watch every game and have gotten to know the boys. Zeev is an absolute stud. Incredible poise and skill. Very good compete level but does need to improve in the D zone. He’s not at all a liability back there and commits himself defensively but just needs to keep working at it. I’d be ecstatic with the Flames taking him.