So how are we feeling about the prospect pool?

[Red John]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

In better shape but still middle of the pack. Need a high end blueline prospect

Yep, should the Flames land the 1st pick next summer it would be wise to take Ekblad over Sam Reinhart, assuming the latter doesn't establish himself as the clear-cut No. 1 between now and then.

Besides Brodie who projects as a top-4 guy and maybe Sieloff the Flames really don't have any blue chip defense prospects. Part of the reason they need to hang onto Gio and Wideman probably for a few years still - there's nobody in the pipeline. A few potential depth guys there and a few long shots but no high end guys.

It's an organizational weakness that doesn't get a lot of attention because of all the focus on finding a No. 1 centre.

[Ashasx]

Even if we finish last, there's only a 25% chance we land the first pick - 75% chance it's the 2nd pick.

Odds are our decision will be made for us. Both Ekblad and Reinhart have started their seasons extremely strong (at least offensively).

Though man, Ekblad would look good in red.

[stemit14]

I feel very good about the prospect pool for the flames... Lots of great pieces and great to see the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks developing into what looks like solid prospects. You look at the oilers and see how dependent they are on getting the high pick in the draft in order to add to quality to their prospect pool. They seem to always strike out with anything out side the top of the 1st round.

Meanwhile, the flames have lots of great prospects like gaudreau, sieloff, Wotherspoon, Horak, and ramage that were picked in the 2nd-4th rounds.

I know there's still a ways to go but there are the pool is getting really deep really quick. That's how great teams become as good as they are. Look at LA... Built a HUGE prospect pool and those prospects either became big pieces of their team (kopitar, brown, voynov, doughty, quick) or were used to trade for the missing pieces that made them contenders (schenn, Simmons). They still to this day have great prospects (toffoli and muzzin) because they have drafted smart and developed their players right. Hope the flames keep it up cause they are on the right track.

[Brad Marsh]

Miles ahead of where it was a few years ago. The team has gone from essentially not having much of a propect pool at all in the Button era, to one primarily full of 4th line/non-NHL calibre players during the Sutter era, to one now that seems to have a few players with enough potential to be considered top 6 prospect. Feaster and co. has done fairly well, IMO, to add a bit more high end talent to the pool.

It has been great to see the rise in the team prospect rankings as well over the last couple of years (I.e. from pundits, ranking lists, etc). The team was consistently in the 27-30 range for so many seasons. I haven't really looked at rankings lately, but would be somewhat surprised if it wasn't in the top half of the league, and wouldn't be surprised at all if it was pushing top-10.

Having said that, I completely agree with others that the Flames are still a scoring winger and a first-pairing d-man away from rounding this pool out. And although neither one of those holes are going to be easy to fill, it feels nice to legitimately be 2-3 prospects away from where the club would want to be as opposed to having multiple significant holes to fill.

Now let's just hope the prospects we now have continue to develop along the required trajectories. So hard to predict which ones will/won't pan out - and I've been sold fool's gold on some of the team's prospects in the recent past, all to no avail.

So overall I like the depth of the pool and love how it's evolved over the last 2-3 drafts

But the biggest question marks for me are in the capacity of the organization to develop these prospects into bonafide top tier players. Is that a fair criticism of the development team or has the organization simply not had that level of propect to work with? It's easily just as important as drafting well, but is there any evidence that the right development team is in place?

[stemit14]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Even if we finish last, there's only a 25% chance we land the first pick - 75% chance it's the 2nd pick.

Odds are our decision will be made for us. Both Ekblad and Reinhart have started their seasons extremely strong (at least offensively).

Though man, Ekblad would look good in red.

I don't think the flames are going to finish last but... Reinhart and ekblad would both look great in red. Either one would fill a need for the flames and I don't think the flames would be disappointed with either of them. The flames are much more likely to be drafting in the same spot they did last year... Too many teams are going to be underestimating the flames this year.

[Vinny01]

I really like how the flames have approached the rebuild thus far. Getting 3 1st round picks and using all of them on who they thought the BPA was. I also really like getting Knight and Colborne on the cheap. The flames will be patient it appears for now really focusing on the culture and identity. If Monahan goes back to jr the flames might have Moahan, Ekblad, and Gaudreau all debuting as NHL players which would be so exciting considering they could all be impact players out of the gate

[dammage79]

Ekblads beard says playoffs. Draft Ekblads beard if the Flames pick top two.

[trackercowe]

The cupboard is still bare,

Sincerely Darren Dredger and Ray Ferraro.

[Table 5]

Personally, I think we're doing ok considering our circumstances, but I still see two big holes:

1. We need at least one top-pairing D-man...ideally 2.

2. And perhaps more importantly, we still need that Stamkos/Tavares level franchise Centre. Monahan from what it looks like will be a really solid guy...but Im not sure I see him as a game-breaker that takes a team on his back. Those guys you just don't get without that Top 3 (ideally Top 1) draft pick.

[Lanny_McDonald]

I think they are a RD and RW from having a top five group of prospects. If they manage to draft one of these players and have several prospect take a step forward by having impressive years in the AHL, I think they could find themselves in that top five in the second year of the rebuild. Things are looking great from a depth perspective. Hopefully the team can rally Cammalleri, Stajan, Stempniak, Jackman, and Butler into a couple more good prospects and some draft picks to further stock the system. The Flames are in that situation where they can draft those two star players in the next couple of drafts and be in a very enviable position.

[$ven27]

No real difference. Knight, Colbourne, Russel, etc are fine additions but nothin to write home about. Another year of a top pick and Sven, Monahan, 2014 first rounder, and maybe Gaudreau and it'll be better.

[Fire]

- Gillies is rated too low.
- Reinhart is rated too high
- RW depth sucks
- C depth is getting crowded with Colborne in the mix.

[stemit14]

I think the flames will try to play their veterans alot for the first half to pad their stats as much as possible and then try to trade cammalleri, stajan, and stempniak for a 1st, 2nd, and a prospect. That would be ideal for the flames for next year considering that makes room for gaudreau at the left wing - which the flames HAVE to do if they have any hope of signing him this spring. Plus it will allow the flames to play alot of rookies next year. The flames could look at next year as a win-win situation... If they fill their line up with rookies and the team improves from this year, great! If not, the flames will have a real shot at drafting the most anticipated prospect since Sidney Crosby on Connor McDavid.

[Enoch Root]

That is not a middle of the pack list - it is a top 10 list.

And there is a really good chance that we have 3 picks in the top 35 again, including a top 3 pick.

Once that happens, and the media has had a year to see that the current guys are pretty good, our ranking will change.

[Vulcan]

I'm pretty sure Hanowski plays RW, so I'd put him ahead of Nemisz. Also Breen should be listed on defence.

[boogerz]

Lots of depth and skill, but it's still missing another blue chip prospect or two (particularly on defense) to be among the best in the league

Feaster has done a great job so far

[Street Pharmacist]

Need some more top end talent still, not that is Feaster's fault.

Lots of good potential complimentary pieces and depth, but short on game changers if we want to be in the top 5 in the league.

Current to 3ish teams:

Boston: Chara, Krejci, arguably more
Pittsburgh: Crosby, Malkin, Letang
Chicago: Toews, Kane, Keith


We still don't have those guys. Hopefully 1 in the pipeline after this year

[StrykerSteve]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I'm pretty sure Hanowski plays RW, so I'd put him ahead of Nemisz. Also Breen should be listed on defence.

Regarding Breen, he is 24 and is no longer considered a prospect by HF standards.

If a prospect is a skater (forward, defenseman) and has played in 65 NHL games or more before the completion of the season of his 24th birthday; or, if a goaltender has played in 45 NHL games before the completion of the season of his 24th birthday, that player will be considered graduated to the NHL. Conversely, if a player completes the season of his 24th birthday without passing those milestones, then that player will no longer be considered a prospect by Hockey’s Future, regardless of the player’s status with his NHL club.

[Red Menace]

With the addition of Colborne and the results of pre-season, my personal prospect ranking would be:

1 Sean Monahan C
2 Sven Baertschi LW
3 John Gaudreau LW
4 Emile Poirier RW
5 Jon Gillies G
6 Patrick Sieloff D
7 Mark Jankowski C
8 Roman Horak C
9 Morgan Klimchuk C
10 Joe Colborne C
11 Lance Bouma C
12 Max Reinhart C
13 Corban Knight C
14 Tyler Wotherspoon D
15 Markus Granlund C
16 Bill Arnold C
17 Michael Ferland LW
18 Ken Agostino LW
19 Laurent Brossoit G
20 John Ramage D
21 Eric Roy D
22 Ben Hanowski LW
23 Joni Ortio G
24 Mark Cundari D
25 Christopher Breen D
26 Chad Billins D
27 Paul Byron C
28 Greg Nemisz C
29 Ryan Culkin D
30 Turner Elson LW
31 Keegan Kanvig D
32 Brett Kulak D
33 Josh Jooris C
34 Tim Harrison RW
35 Rushan Rafikov D
36 Coda Gordon LW
37 Matt DeBlouw C
38 John Gilmour D
39 David Eddy RW
40 James Martin D

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Dion

I'll take what we have now compared to the Darryl Sutter era where he left the cupboard dry.

I think Darryl might like to coach the group we have now. Big forwards.