[Rumour] Instead of trading for right shot centres, here’s some 2025 draft ones

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

It's also pretty rare to get a player like that with a top 5 draft pick . Only two guys of the guys you mentioned were top 5 picks and two of them were not even first round picks.

That’s the whole point. The most likely avenue to get our #1C is through the draft.

I’m not against trading for one, but I can’t see teams wanting to trade one. Unless you want another Lindholm n

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

No.

I’m saying he only becomes available because of Buffalo being an incompetent organization.

These type of players are usually not on the market.

Florida isn’t trading Barkov. Colorado isn’t trading MacKinnon. Tampa isn’t trading Point. La isn’t trading Kopitar. Boston isn’t trading Bergeron when he was playing.

The point is it’s very rare to get a player like that via trade.

Why do people keep bringing up the MacKinnons of the world?

Conroy AND Seraveli BOTH said a middle-6 C. NO ONE is suggesting that he is trying to get a MacKinnon via trade. A middle 6 C - a commodity that does periodically trade.

Calm down on the hyperbole.

[Enoch Root]

Flames' main top 9 centers, over the last 10 years:

Backlund - draft
Monahan - draft
Lindholm - trade
Kadri - trade
Stajan - trade
Bennett - draft

based on that, I'd say middle 6 Cs (including good ones) are available by trade

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Flames' main top 9 centers, over the last 10 years:

Backlund - draft
Monahan - draft
Lindholm - trade
Kadri - trade
Stajan - trade
Bennett - draft

based on that, I'd say middle 6 Cs (including good ones) are available by trade

Kadri was a FA signing, but your point still stands.

[Enoch Root]

right, thanks

[Enoch Root]

In the entire time I have been a Flames fan (more than 20 years) they have been weak at C - a perpetual problem that is always being addressed, but never fixed. I think the solution is obvious: draft more Cs, especially in the 1st round.

Yes, yes, BPA - but where has that gotten us?

Here are all of the 1st round picks used on Cs, since 2000:

07: Backlund
08: Nemisz
12: Jankowski
13: Monahan
14: Bennett (for a little while, they were doing it, and it worked)
20: Zary

that's it, 6 in 25 years

Draft more Cs! The other positions fair much better with later round picks, but C is the most important position - spend the most draft capital on it!

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

These type of players are usually not on the market.

Florida isn’t trading Barkov. Colorado isn’t trading MacKinnon. Tampa isn’t trading Point. La isn’t trading Kopitar. Boston isn’t trading Bergeron when he was playing.

The point is it’s very rare to get a player like that via trade.

Which is why most teams draft them ...

· Third Round, #79 selection in the 2014 Draft, Brayden Point
· First Round, #11 selection in the 2005 Draft, Anze Kopitar
· Second Round, #45 selection in the 2003 Draft, Patrice Bergeron

Sometimes, even well outside the top-five.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Why do people keep bringing up the MacKinnons of the world?

Conroy AND Seraveli BOTH said a middle-6 C. NO ONE is suggesting that he is trying to get a MacKinnon via trade. A middle 6 C - a commodity that does periodically trade.

Calm down on the hyperbole.

Why don’t you calm yourself down. Talking out of line like that.

[looooob]

I know what we shouldn't do...


https://thehockeywriters.com/maple-l...e-david-kampf/


(I think they forget which team BT is GM'ing)

[Number 39]

One thing I do wonder about re: drafting centres. I feel like in the last while when the Flames develop a centre they have had a habit of breaking them in on the wing and it rarely happens that they eventually move to centre.

It always seems to be a struggle for the organization to allow a centre to break in as a centre. I realize that this has been a combination at various times of centre depth blocking prospects or the perceived need to break in on the wing w fewer responsibilities.

I just hope when they do draft a few higher end centres they let them break in as centres for a change. I have no evidence but I don’t feel like other organizations are as cautious in this approach.

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by looooob

I know what we shouldn't do...


https://thehockeywriters.com/maple-l...e-david-kampf/


(I think they forget which team BT is GM'ing)

Kampf is a cap dump, we’d be doing Brad a favour.
If they want to toss a 2nd along with him I suppose we could do it.
Otherwise, no this player doesn’t fit into what Craig is looking for at all… he’s been very clear he wants a YOUNG center and preferably RHS.

“Young manageable assets” not underperforming 29 year old veterans.
Total swing and miss on this article, I can’t believe how bad of a whiff this is… but Toronto media always seems to think the league is out to do them favours by making terrible 1 sides trades with T.O

[Svartsengi]

What about Cody Glass in Pittsburgh?. He isn’t lighting up the scoreboard but that might make him available for a decent price.

Perhaps Someone like Craig Conroy was in St. Louis. He got traded to Flames as a defensive specialist who could skate well and win draws. The offensive game certainly developed when playing with Iginla.

[Robbob]

It has been discussed multiple times in the last game, the Flames just don't have anyone that has a strong right side to take faceoffs. Over the course of a year that is going to kill you. Not a bad thing to try and get during a season for the future, because any pick that comes in is probably a couple years away from being okay in the faceoff dot.

[Harry Lime]

The Joe Thornton method also works pretty well. Find a high ceiling center that is being mishandled by another organization, or a team desperate for an upgrade that you can provide.

Nashville are desperate for defense and are win now. They have parsinnen and svechkov, languishing behind bigger contracts.

The Blues have perunovich, stenberg and dvorsky waiting in the wings and I wonder what could be pried loose.

Off the top of my head.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Bonded

Conroy said he wants an age appropriate center with upside. If he can get that player in a trade he should because they are the hardest asset to acquire. His pro scouting or letting his pro scouts actually do their job is paying off pretty well.

Yeah… everybody saying “you have to do this through the draft” is saying that because it’s virtually impossible to make it happen via trade. If it happened, it would be a huge win.

[Flamesfan05]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Flames' main top 9 centers, over the last 10 years:

Backlund - draft
Monahan - draft
Lindholm - trade
Kadri - trade
Stajan - trade
Bennett - draft

based on that, I'd say middle 6 Cs (including good ones) are available by trade

Kadri was a UFA. Those normally don’t work out too well


And all it costed to get Lindholm and Stajan were their best dman at the time

Draft is the best option. Not just the Flames but any team

[BigThief]

Joe Thornton had already had a 100 point season, he was PPG the year before, and had 33 points in 23 games at the time of the trade. He wasn't being mishandled by the Bruins, they just lost their mind and decided to trade him. Months later Joe won the Hart Trophy with San Jose and GM O'Connell was fired.

No one is saying you can't trade for a top line center, it happens, but the best most consistant way to do that is to draft high. Draft draft draft. Why have some of you forgotten that amidst a tiny four game winning streak. Drafting and developing is the most consistant form of building a winner in this league. Teams do it other ways but not as often.

I'm not against Calgary trading for a potential top line centre if one is out there, but I don't see it, and I'd rather we stay the course on this rebuild since we're literally in the first steps of it.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Number 39

One thing I do wonder about re: drafting centres. I feel like in the last while when the Flames develop a centre they have had a habit of breaking them in on the wing and it rarely happens that they eventually move to centre.

Part of it is that Backlund is the best in the business at helping turn rookie linemates into reliable NHLers, and Backlund needs to play centre to be effective.

Pospisil looks like he's graduated from wing to centre this season, and I'm reasonably confident Zary will get his chance when there's an opening – probably due to injury. Obviously they don't want him on the fourth line, which is why they gave that job to Kirkland during Rooney's injury.

By the time Sharangovich comes back from IR, I imagine the team will be trading some surplus forwards for futures to make room on the roster. At that point, the team will have several young forwards with some experience playing C in the NHL – plus one more, if Conroy manages to swing the trade he wants.

At this time last year, I was downright worried about the Flames' depth on defence. Conroy showed he could turn a weakness into a strength in a hell of a hurry. Logic suggests that centre will be the next position he addresses.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Kadri was a UFA. Those normally don’t work out too well


And all it costed to get Lindholm and Stajan were their best dman at the time

Draft is the best option. Not just the Flames but any team

read the conversation

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

In the entire time I have been a Flames fan (more than 20 years) they have been weak at C - a perpetual problem that is always being addressed, but never fixed. I think the solution is obvious: draft more Cs, especially in the 1st round.

Yes, yes, BPA - but where has that gotten us?

Here are all of the 1st round picks used on Cs, since 2000:

07: Backlund
08: Nemisz
12: Jankowski
13: Monahan
14: Bennett (for a little while, they were doing it, and it worked)
20: Zary

that's it, 6 in 25 years

Draft more Cs! The other positions fair much better with later round picks, but C is the most important position - spend the most draft capital on it!

This is totally cherry picking, and I obviously don’t know what the team draft lists were but… going by your method for fun and picking the next centre chosen in every year we didn’t draft one (from 2000-2023):

2000: Mikhail Yakubov
2001: Marcel Goc
2002: Jesse Niinimäki
2003: Jeff Carter or Ryan Getzlaf
2004: Rob Schremp
2005: Ryan Stoa
2006: Tomas Kana
2007: Backlund as drafted
2008: Daultan Leveille
2009: Marcus Johansson
2010: Reinhart as drafted (3rd ####ing round)
2011: Mark McNeill
2012: Jankowski (instead of Girgensons or Hertl due to trading down)
2013: Monahan as drafted and I love this man
2014: Bennett as drafted another win (yeah. W pick, L in development)
2015: Yakov Trenin (passing on Rasmus)
2016: Clayton Keller (passing in Tkachuk)
2017: Josh Norris
2018: Popsipil as drafted (a beaut, but the 4th ####ing round!!!!)
2019: Ryan Suzuki
2020: Zary as drafted
2021: Bolduc/Lucius passing on Coronto
2022: Topi Ronni as drafted
2023: Oliver Moore

So, Goc, Johansson, would have been okay/effective and certainly better than the picks we made. 2012 too…

Too early to say on Oliver Moore vs. Honzek

Josh Norris would be pretty great.

2003 would have been amazing either way, with Getz being much more of a franchise centre than Carter.

On the flip side, only 3 picks would have been skipping the better player… but the difference is glaring on 2 of them (Rasmus and Tkachuk).

Biggest takeaway from this, is there ever a lot of “traded from Calgary” above our picks in a lot of years. More than anyone else. It actually made me angry to comb through this…Painful. Gotta keep those firsts.