Summer Prospect Ranking Poll Round 25

[TurnedTheCorner]

Voting for Roy until he's in, I don't know enough/care enough about anyone else to vote for them

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Bryan Trottier I think as well...

Just here eligible for our votes are Howse and Ferland who are Metis also.

[dammage79]

Going with Ortio. Kulak will likely get this slot, but I still hold out hope for the young goalie.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Kulak for me. Most promising top 4 defencemen left.

Ferland is right there though - I think he is the Flames' most unique prospect (Kanzig aside). I think if he hits anywhere near his ceiling, he will be a fan-favorite and a big piece of the core moving forward (big if, however - and this is why I haven't voted for him yet).

Deblouw looks like to be Knight 2.0. Scored some clutch goals last season too.

Gordon is a guy that gets no love, but is a legitimate prospect who many scouts felt was a 'steal' by Calgary. I didn't see him improve much last season, but hopefully he makes some strides now.

Roy and Rafikov could both end up being top 4 defencmen. Roy has a wonderful offensive ceiling with apparently severe defensive shortcomings (which I hope get corrected - he is a project and thus the fall from the 1st round early season ranking). Rafikov sounds like a gem, however. Love the fact he plays with an edge, and apparently makes great outlet passes under pressure.

Ortio is a guy I find very difficult to rank as well. I still think he could develop into a starter. He just may surprise some guys here.

Nemisz is a guy who many are down on. I think he will be a journeyman in the NHL, but definitely brings some size and shutdown ability. He was great paired with Baertshi for that small sampling of games, but he wasn't too bad at all on the NHL ice (smart positioning, but needed to become faster).

Nice to see legitimate talent still being there in the 20's. Gives us all a bit of hope.

[Stormchaser]

Harrison.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I think some sources had him going as high as the 2nd round. Just from what I have read about him, it sounds like some insiders held him in fairly high regard.

Well the real insiders are the scouts. And no team stepped up before the Flames did in the 5th to take him. So this talk of "insiders" having him as a 2nd rounder sounds quite fishy.

He was highly regarded prior to this year but had a pretty bad season on a bad team. His numbers dropped quite a bit, not a good sign in your draft year.

He's a gamble with good upside. But until he has a bounce back season I don't see how he could be considered over guys like Kulak and Culkin who have proven more so far IMO.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Well the real insiders are the scouts. And no team stepped up before the Flames did in the 5th to take him. So this talk of "insiders" having him as a 2nd rounder sounds quite fishy.

He was highly regarded prior to this year but had a pretty bad season on a bad team. His numbers dropped quite a bit, not a good sign in your draft year.

He's a gamble with good upside. But until he has a bounce back season I don't see how he could be considered over guys like Kulak and Culkin who have proven more so far IMO.

I only said some sources. I didn't call them insiders.

I think we all know that a player's draft position isn't always indicative of where individual teams had them ranked. It only means that when it came time to pick, the team picking had a few players ahead the other player. How many players they had ahead of him by round 5 is completely anyone's guess.

Theoretically, a team picking in the 5th round with one pick in each of the previous rounds, may have only had 4 players ranked ahead of him. While I realize that is not likely, I don't think it's that unlikely that a player picked in the 5th may have been in the top 60 players of some of the teams at that point. I certainly wouldn't say the chances are so low that they are "fishy".