2024 NHL Draft Thread

[devo22]

Originally Posted by dammage79

If you know the player never intends to sign, you move on. You don't make the pick. The fox comparable isn't great as he wasn't a 1st round pick to begin with, he was a 3rd, which is an acceptable risk.

I don't believe the American player jitters need to die. The Flames in particular have been burned too many times in the last five years to not be jittery.

What it comes down to is risk assessment and due diligence .

I get what your saying but I don't agree with it totally.

have they? Sure, Gaudreau burned them, but apart from that mess? Maybe I'm missing someone, but Fox was the only pick that didn't want to sign (plus that was in 2018). And even with him, it wasn't a US/Canada issue, it was an entitlement issue. Carolina couldn't get him signed either.

Sure, upcoming UFAs wanted to leave. But Gaudreau played in Calgary for 8 seasons, Tkachuk for 6, Hanifin for almost 6. Then they wanted to leave, but that shouldn't dissuade the Flames from drafting American players though. The only lesson they need to learn is avoiding another Gaudreau situation, and they seemily have, given that they traded all their upcoming UFAs this season. But in terms of drafting? They didn't have any issue signing Coronato out of college.

[Freeway]

Gaudreau was publicly adamant he wanted to be a Flame after being drafted, signed twice with the franchise and it took arguably a perfect storm of non-hockey factors to lure him away from Calgary in 2022.

And even if you want to say he burned the team, he played nine seasons for the Flames. It's hard to say they didn't get value out of that 4th round pick.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

Especially for first round picks. Even more so for top 10 picks.
A top ten pick should be playing in the NHL after a year. It would rather stupid for a player not to sign an ELC after a D+1 year. Otherwise they could be pushing back their first RFA contract by several years and then lose out on several millions of dollars.

Lets use Gabriel Perreault for an example.

With 54 points in 31 NCAA games, he looks NHL ready.
He could sign a 3 year ECL and get his first real RFA contract at the age of 21 (and he could burn a year of the ELC by signing early). If he's good, he can potentially make 7 mill+ per year from the ages of 21 to 26. Then he can really cash in even more as a younger UFA.

Order, he could refuse to sign, and play with Boston College for another r3 years. He then signs his ELC at the age of 21, and then his first RFA contract at 24. At this point, he has less leverage, and he would have made much less money while in his early 20s.

For a guy like this, the difference could be tens of millions of dollars between agreeing to sign the ELC and holding out. I don't care how much he loves NYC or hates Canada (even though he was born in Canada). He'd be crazy to give up this much money.

I agree with this. For most really high 1st rounders, a player stands to potentially lose millions in career earnings if they don't sign with the team that drafts them. Most will at least sign an ELC and then work from that point to move on if they want to. For later rounds, if you think a player is going to progress like as with Fox, you make the pick and hope for best.

I think there is a mushy middle area though where the risk needs to be considered, like in the mid-first round where the pick is valuable, the prospect has tonnes of upside, but they may not be NHL ready until the "loophole" becomes a factor.

Honestly though, I think teams can get a good sense of where a player stands during the interview process. Like when drafting Coronato, I am sure they got to the bottom of it pretty fast to see where his priorities were. And to be fair, i think they do this with all high 1st round picks regardless of what system they are selected from. I think whether a player seems like they are going to be a malcontent or unagreeable, should be one of the factors a team considers when taking them. It's all relative though. Like Quebec selecting Lindros had to happen no matter what, but if you are selecting at say #15 where there isn't a lot that separates them from pack, it's one of the boxes you check off.

(Loophole is quotes, because that is what some people call it, even if it isn't technically a loophole)

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Freeway

Gaudreau was publicly adamant he wanted to be a Flame after being drafted, signed twice with the franchise and it took arguably a perfect storm of non-hockey factors to lure him away from Calgary in 2022.

And even if you want to say he burned the team, he played nine seasons for the Flames. It's hard to say they didn't get value out of that 4th round pick.

Totally. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Gaudreau. He gave us his best years and didn't owe the Flames anything at that point. The guy wanted to try somewhere else, and nothing wrong with that. His reasons are his own and I never cared about the why. I wish the asset was managed differently, but that wasn't Gaudreau's job.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Totally. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Gaudreau. He gave us his best years and didn't owe the Flames anything at that point. The guy wanted to try somewhere else, and nothing wrong with that. His reasons are his own and I never cared about the why. I wish the asset was managed differently, but that wasn't Gaudreau's job.

not to re-hash this for the 274th time, but the asset might have been managed differently if he hadn't indicated wanting to re-sign, only to get cold feet at the 11th hour

but yeah, even if I would say that Gaudreau absolutely burned the Flames in the way he left, he gave them 8 years of great service before that. So even if him leaving for nothing is a cautionary tale, I think his career in a Flames uniform is actually a pretty good example of why that fear of US players burning us is a tad overblown. Personally, I'm really tired of it coming up whenever we draft or trade for an American player. It usually is a non-issue, Brzustewicz being the latest example.

[Ba'alzamon]

Cutter Gauthier refused to sign with the Flyers so they traded him for Jamie Drysdale.

I don't think they have any complaints about how that turned out.

[Freeway]

If you draft the best players available, there's usually a trade market for them if for whatever reason you decide to go down that route.

[Groot]

Didn't two US-born players sign here within the last 2 weeks? Including a college FA that could have signed anywhere?

The only issue with trying to focus on drafting the "BPA" is that outside of the top few picks there usually isn't a consensus BPA. And thats especially true since basically any re-draft is wildly different from what the actual draft was in any given year. And even the top picks start to vary in most re-drafts.

[Tkachukwagon]

Unrealistic dream: Catton with our first, Parascak with Vancouver’s first -

https://twitter.com/user/status/1771903094143455696

[Royle9]

I’m more and more interested in Catton after watching his gameplay.
Guy is going to be a #1C if he’s there at our pick.

Really wish we somehow got 2 top 12 picks

[Fan69]

Originally Posted by Royle9

I’m more and more interested in Catton after watching his gameplay.
Guy is going to be a #1C if he’s there at our pick.

Really wish we somehow got 2 top 12 picks

If we walk out with Catton in this draft everything after is just a bonus.

[devo22]

cheering for losses absolutely sucks, but getting to 8th (before the lottery) would be fantastic. No idea how the board will fall in this draft after Celebrini, but 8th would pretty much guarantee us to either get a great center (Lindstrom, Catton) or defenseman (Levshunov, Dickinson, Silayev, Buium) to build around. Good defensemen would be there later too, but center is worryingly thin after the top bracket.

[Tkachukwagon]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1772064249470205952

[Ba'alzamon]

Originally Posted by Tkachukwagon

https://twitter.com/user/status/1772064249470205952

After all, if there's one thing the Flames need it's a left shot winger. Bonus points if he can't skate.

[Sandman]

I really wouldn’t mind if we came away with Greentree at all, and I agree- people are sleeping on him, just like Quentin Musty last year, and Greentree is a better player. He has NOBODY to play with in Windsor. Next year, he’ll put up close to 2 ppg in the OHL.

Greentree is a bit like Draisaitl in that regard, supreme offensive player who will never be a burner, but by the time he’s in the league, his skating will be good enough- and don’t forget, we have one of the best skating coaches in the league, in Danielle Fujita.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by devo22

cheering for losses absolutely sucks, but getting to 8th (before the lottery) would be fantastic. No idea how the board will fall in this draft after Celebrini, but 8th would pretty much guarantee us to either get a great center (Lindstrom, Catton) or defenseman (Levshunov, Dickinson, Silayev, Buium) to build around. Good defensemen would be there later too, but center is worryingly thin after the top bracket.

I have always hope Calgary will win when they play, I can’t hope they lose.

But these days, if they lose, it doesn’t bother me.

[aaronkarlpatton]

Originally Posted by Sandman

I really wouldn’t mind if we came away with Greentree at all, and I agree- people are sleeping on him, just like Quentin Musty last year, and Greentree is a better player. He has NOBODY to play with in Windsor. Next year, he’ll put up close to 2 ppg in the OHL.

Greentree is a bit like Draisaitl in that regard, supreme offensive player who will never be a burner, but by the time he’s in the league, his skating will be good enough- and don’t forget, we have one of the best skating coaches in the league, in Danielle Fujita.

Thank yoi for the run down, I really like this kid. And he is big to boot.

Sent from my SM-G990W2 using Tapatalk

[dammage79]

Didn't the Flames draft a Greentree in the dark days too? Time is a flat circle I guess lol.

[Mightyfire89]

Based on nothing at all, I hope the Flames end up drafting Helenius. Strong Barkov vibes for me.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Didn't the Flames draft a Greentree in the dark days too? Time is a flat circle I guess lol.

Kyle Greentree! Acquired for Tim Ramholt