Coates should get a pass on the 1997 draft. Only 18 picks of the top 120 and 32 picks out of the total 246 played more than 350 games... it was an absolutely brutal draft. Arguably, he should also get a pass on the 1999 draft too, where there where only 31 picks out of the total 271 made it past the 350 game mark. Those are two of the worst drafts of all time with respect to the talent pool. By comparison, Sutter only picked one NHLer from the greatest draft of all-time (2003) and whiffed on a bunch of solid draft pools during the rest of his tenure.
The conditions that Coates had to work with are also incredibly understated. The Flames payroll was near the bottom of the league at $20-21M in the last two years of his tenure. League average at the time was around $31M and the big market teams (i.e. Avs, Leafs, Rangers, Wings, Stars, Flyers, and Blues) were spending $40M+ per year on player salaries. Imagine trying to assemble a decent team when a third of the league is spending twice as much money.
Sutter should get a ton of credit for pulling together the 03-04 run on a shoestring budget, but being the GM during the cap era for the rest of his tenure makes it infinitely easier to assemble a perennial playoff contender. The salary cap was a game changer.
I voted for Coates on the basis that he:
- inherited the terrible roster and prospect pool that Risebrough gutted
- received zero financial support from ownership to acquire higher-end players
- was subject to two of the worst drafts of all time during his four year tenure as GM
...and in spite of that, he still managed to keep the Flames from being the worst team in the league.
