Tij Iginla ranked No. 10 overall by Bob McKenzie for 2024 NHL Draft

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I think it's pretty general that great players can be unearthed later as plenty of really good forwards have been recently drafted outside of the first round in Point, Kucherov, Robertson, Stankoven, Hintz, Sebastian Aho, Trocheck, Guentzel, etc.

True. I don't know why but it always feels to me like the mid first round is a forward. And high first round is a forward unless it's a can't miss guy like Makar/Hughes/Heiskenan/Hedman.

I also think the Flames are going to have multiple picks in several years.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

The Flames already have 2 first rounders and may end up having 2 in the top half of the draft when the dust settles. You can address more than 1 position of need this year. You stick to the list and draft based on your internal rankings and you should end up with 2 good NHL prospects. Maybe only 1 has that elite top of lineup potential, but maybe both do.

Departing from the above and chasing a position is exactly how you end up with busts more often than a team normally would.

Position scarcity and importance should be a factor. BPA gets tossed around but ignores that centres and D are more valuable, and harder to find, than wingers.

If a winger is significantly better - draft the winger.
If it's close, consider the priority of the position.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Position scarcity and importance should be a factor. BPA gets tossed around but ignores that centres and D are more valuable, and harder to find, than wingers.

If a winger is significantly better - draft the winger.
If it's close, consider the priority of the position.

First line centers are scarce mainly because you almost always need to be drafting top 3 or top 5 to find one. Second and third line centers are not that hard to find.

Personally, I would say if you are drafting at around 9th OA, you should be targeting the player you think has the best chance to be a 1st line forward (period) or top pairing defenseman. I recall a story from the 1997 draft that Vancouver had Marian Hossa as their draft target, but then picked Brad Ference because they put more value in defensemen. Woof.

[Snuffleupagus]

I was told that Columbus has targeted a defenseman with the 4th pick, if he's gone they will take a pure sniper, will it be Eiserman or Iginla?

[Icon]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

I was told that Columbus has targeted a defenseman with the 4th pick, if he's gone they will take a pure sniper, will it be Eiserman or Iginla?

If they're talking pure sniper then they're looking at Eiserman. Might be interesting as they could look at a trade down to get either a defenseman they still like or Eiserman instead... of course depends on how far they trade down and for what.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

First line centers are scarce mainly because you almost always need to be drafting top 3 or top 5 to find one. Second and third line centers are not that hard to find.

Personally, I would say if you are drafting at around 9th OA, you should be targeting the player you think has the best chance to be a 1st line forward (period) or top pairing defenseman. I recall a story from the 1997 draft that Vancouver had Marian Hossa as their draft target, but then picked Brad Ference because they put more value in defensemen. Woof.

Disagree. Ask the Avalanche how easy it is to find a 2nd line center. They are still trying to replace Kadri and Middlestadt cost them Byram who was a 4th overall pick. Lindholm is going to be one of the top UFA's on the market. Panthers are a few games away from the cup because of their center depth as it's not easy to build a team deep down the middle.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

I was told that Columbus has targeted a defenseman with the 4th pick, if he's gone they will take a pure sniper, will it be Eiserman or Iginla?

Anything anyone is told at this time of year must be taken with a grain of salt as it's the lying season. No teams will tip their hat prior to the draft so anything you hear has usually been fabricated, purposely leaked by teams in hopes of misdirection, or the phoney declarations that they are open to trading their pick.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Disagree. Ask the Avalanche how easy it is to find a 2nd line center.

They had no trouble finding 2nd-line centres. They just couldn't afford to keep the good ones because of the cap. Different problem, arising at a different stage of team-building.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

I was told that Columbus has targeted a defenseman with the 4th pick, if he's gone they will take a pure sniper, will it be Eiserman or Iginla?

Waddells 1st round picks while GM of the Canes

4 F

0 D

Not sure it means anything mind you....different circunstances.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Waddells 1st round picks while GM of the Canes

4 F

0 D

Not sure it means anything mind you....different circunstances.

But were you “told” these numbers? Then I will believe them

[#-3]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

True. I don't know why but it always feels to me like the mid first round is a forward. And high first round is a forward unless it's a can't miss guy like Makar/Hughes/Heiskenan/Hedman.

I also think the Flames are going to have multiple picks in several years.

I completely agree, but don't like saying "I feel". So I did a quest test exporting Hockeydb to a spreadsheet; From 2009-2023, checking for players who have averaged 41+ games / year since their draft. (as a simple measure of who made it full time quickly and for a long time).

1st Round F 44%
1st Round D 33%

2-7 Round F 5.1%
2-7 Round D 4.1%

So your chances of pulling a long term D do go up slightly relative to F in later rounds, D overall are about 30% less likely to have a long NHL career coming out of the draft making them riskier picks in the top 10, riskier picks in the top 32 and riskier picks in the later rounds. That level of relative risk just goes down compare to forwards later in the draft.

as a quick aside 65 D men, and 104 forwards met my criteria from the 15 year span. So we are talking about the top 5% of draft pick from all of the drafts, and the top 20% of players who will be in the NHL this year.

*I didn't consider retirements, or make any adjustments for the shorts seasons... So it naturally weighted my measurement a little heavier on the 2015-2012 drafts where there are more guys who have hand the chance to smooth out those lost games in the averages, and fewer guys who have cut their careers shorts, shrinking their averages.

[shutout]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

this is about taking BPA I think.

Whose BPA?

Yours?
Mine? - I have Iginla at 10 on my list
The Flames scouting staff?
Bingo's consolidated listing?

Please define when you or when anyone trots out the old "Take the BPA"
It means absolutely nothing.

Be specific and say that you hope that the Flames take the BPA off of your list which might be Iginla at #1. But please stop the vague word speak.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by shutout

Be specific and say that you hope that the Flames take the BPA off of your list which might be Iginla at #1. But please stop the vague word speak.

It's Mr. Coffee. If he named a specific player and the Flames took him, he wouldn't be able to tell the world how stupid they were to draft that guy.

He's just keeping his options open, like any good Flames anti-fan.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Disagree. Ask the Avalanche how easy it is to find a 2nd line center. They are still trying to replace Kadri and Middlestadt cost them Byram who was a 4th overall pick. Lindholm is going to be one of the top UFA's on the market. Panthers are a few games away from the cup because of their center depth as it's not easy to build a team deep down the middle.

9/12 forwards playing played some center. That definitely helps them if anyone goes down, as center is the hardest forward position. It makes you a good two way player if you do it right.

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by shutout

Whose BPA?

Yours?
Mine? - I have Iginla at 10 on my list
The Flames scouting staff?
Bingo's consolidated listing?

Please define when you or when anyone trots out the old "Take the BPA"
It means absolutely nothing.

Be specific and say that you hope that the Flames take the BPA off of your list which might be Iginla at #1. But please stop the vague word speak.

Obviously the Flames scouting staff. That's the only list that matters.

[shutout]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Obviously the Flames scouting staff. That's the only list that matters.

How is it obvious?
To say don’t take a defenseman just take the BPA makes no sense.
Flames probably have six defenseman in their top ten.
They may have all six of them ahead of Iginla.

Regardless of who they pick there will be someone not happy because they had another BPA available when the flames were picking.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Position scarcity and importance should be a factor. BPA gets tossed around but ignores that centres and D are more valuable, and harder to find, than wingers.

If a winger is significantly better - draft the winger.
If it's close, consider the priority of the position.

I just think of how 2 teams made terrible position based draft picks to miss out on the Tkachuk’s. Vancouver went D with Juolevi and Montreal went C with Kotkaniemi. Neither were massive reaches but the wingers were ranked higher on most draft boards.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

I just think of how 2 teams made terrible position based draft picks to miss out on the Tkachuk’s. Vancouver went D with Juolevi and Montreal went C with Kotkaniemi. Neither were massive reaches but the wingers were ranked higher on most draft boards.

Well we aren’t talking about reaching for a defenseman or center ranked lower than Iginla. Lindstrom, Catton, and several defensemen are ranked higher on most boards and some of them will be available. Conroy and Button both have discussed that they are prioritizing high ceiling over high floor and Iginla is more high floor than high ceiling as nobody predicts him to be as good as his dad. Several of these defensemen and Catton, Lindstom are higher ceiling players. We will have to wait and see if Conroy really is going to follow the approach of going for the home run over a single or double.

[Erick Estrada]

Matthew Tkachuk was high ceiling but lower floor due to his skating. That’s the type of player I feel the Flames should be targeting.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Well we aren’t talking about reaching for a defenseman or center ranked lower than Iginla. Lindstrom, Catton, and several defensemen are ranked higher on most boards and some of them will be available. Conroy and Button both have discussed that they are prioritizing high ceiling over high floor and Iginla is more high floor than high ceiling as nobody predicts him to be as good as his dad. Several of these defensemen and Catton, Lindstom are higher ceiling players. We will have to wait and see if Conroy really is going to follow the approach of going for the home run over a single or double.

I have a hard time not seeing how Iginla doesn’t have a high ceiling. He has to be the highest rising prospect of the past year no? When the season started the talk was he was a 2nd rounder and he is going top 5 in many mocks now. He doesn’t turn 18 until August so on the younger side of prospects and seems to be coming into his own and the sky is the limit in my opinion. I don’t think he will be there at 9