Who would you draft round 3 - Pre WJC edition

[Jiri Hrdina]

Round 1: McKenna: 78%
Round 2: Stenberg: 68%

If those two are gone, who should the Flames take/

[Harry Lime]

I like Stenberg, but he would have been fourth, for me.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Oliver Suvanto.

[gvitaly]

I voted for Lawrance, even though I think Verhoeff is the better player right now. That said I don't see there being much of a gap, and the Flames have a lot of D prospects, and only so many spots.

Lawrence is the best center in the draft. He's not as flashy as some of the wingers, but his speed, skill, hockey IQ, and defensive play more than make up for it. I think his ceiling is Barkov, his comparable is Aho, and his floor is Cirelli.

[DoubleK]

I voted other. If McKenna and Stenberg are gone, I would look at trading down to grab someone later in the top 10 and add another pick.

With the VGK pick I hope that Casey Mutryn is still around.

[Goriders]

Flames need forwards with skill desperately. They have a lot of young defensmen.

I’d be drafting centers and wingers this up coming draft.

[Cheese]

BPA = Verhoeff

[Canada 02]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Oliver Suvanto.

He has been moving up since Hlinka. I like him too. If Hlinka reflects his offensive upside, he’s going to go top 10. His defensive and physical game is very strong

[FanIn80]

Lawrence, all day.

We have a plethora of right-shot D. What we don't have are centers.

[dino7c]

against the grain on this one

[KootenayFlamesFan]

You don't pass on Verhoeff just because the Flames have quite a few d-men prospects already. Some may not pan out. Some may run into injury issues. You never know what can happen. And best case scenario.........all the d-men turn into solid players and you trade one or two of them for forward help. If Verhoeff is there at 3, you take him.

[Reggie Dunlop]

These threads might be less confusing if they were titled "Who would you draft at ___ overall?" etc.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

You don't pass on Verhoeff just because the Flames have quite a few d-men prospects already. Some may not pan out. Some may run into injury issues. You never know what can happen. And best case scenario.........all the d-men turn into solid players and you trade one or two of them for forward help. If Verhoeff is there at 3, you take him.

You absolutely do. BPA got the Flames in this mess.

[Stampede2TheCup]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

You absolutely do. BPA got the Flames in this mess.

Mess?

[Mephisto]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

You absolutely do. BPA got the Flames in this mess.

Lol - what?

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Stampede2TheCup

Mess?

Originally Posted by Mephisto

Lol - what?

How many developing Centers to the Flames have in the system? 0

How many RHS Forwards do the Flames have in the system? 0

They haven't won a faceoff to goalies right in the d-zone since Lindholm left.

You are building a team, not a collection of BPA.

If that's not a mess, I don't know what is.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Flames took Parekh at 9 because he fell, as other teams took a run at centers. It was fortunate that Reschny was available last draft at where the Flames picked. If he was an inch taller, I bet he would have gone 5+ spots earlier. One could argue that Potter was taken too early and that there were better wings and defencemen were available, though some models had Potter ranked much higher. Ditto for Stocksellus. Seems like Conroy prioritized centers last draft if you ask me. There is always a run on centers very early in every draft. If McKenna and Stenberg were not this good, I would be arguing to bypass the both of them for Lawrence or some other centers.

FWIW, I would agree that a C is more valuable than a D, so by this rule, I would prefer Lawrence. However, I think the step down from Verhoeff to Lawrence is a large one. I personally see the rankings and ledges as:

==========================
McKenna
Stenberg
Verhoeff
....
Lawrence
...
...
...
The next tier.
==========================

Some scouts have Lawrence as a good 2nd line center, but not really a 1st line center. Some have him as a 1B. Maybe in his second half he shows even more (he slowed down lately IIRC), and really pushes himself up into the first tier. That's when I change my mind about Lawrence. I do think he is the best center available, but that doesn't mean he is a 1st line center, as crazy as that sounds.

Verhoeff sounds like a solid 30-minute defencmen that helps tilt the ice and will have a big impact in the game in all areas. That's adding an elite difference maker to your team. Having him on the ice for 30 minutes is huge. In the long run, having:

Bahl - Verhoeff
Kuznetsov - Parekh
X - Brzustewicz

That would be amazing, especially in playoffs during OT games. You don't have to run your top two pairings for close to 30 minutes, but you could.

However, it isn't lost on me what a 1st line center can do, or even two very good 2nd line centers if it ends up as Lawrence - Reschny at some point. That also helps you control the game, especially since both will be very cerebral 2-way centers. Still can win you cups, depending on whom else you surround them with.

At this point, I prefer a C being chosen over a D or a W, but I do think that the 3 clear players in this draft aren't centers. If Lawrence keeps pushes himself into that competition - at least gets closer to Verhoeff's level - then I will prefer Lawrence even if Verhoeff is a bit better. I just think that right now, the gap is too big to prefer Lawrence over him.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

How many developing Centers to the Flames have in the system? 0

How many RHS Forwards do the Flames have in the system? 0

They haven't won a faceoff to goalies right in the d-zone since Lindholm left.

You are building a team, not a collection of BPA.

If that's not a mess, I don't know what is.

First, let's start at the end. Backlund actually worked on his offhand faceoffs a lot in this offseason. That's why this year the Flames actually have the 5th best FO% 4 on 5 with 53.72%.

In the draft you should for the most part draft the best player available. Especially in the later rounds. Every organization has holes, and Conroy is slowly addressing them. For example drafting 3 centers with the first 3 picks last year. The year before that Conroy addressed the Flames having only Kuznetsov, Poirier and Solovyov as the D prospects, with 0 RS D among them. All of a sudden the Flames got Parekh, Brzustewicz(trade), and Mews.

Flames prospects when Conroy took over(based on the 2023 offseason CP rankings)
Pelletier - Zary - Coronato
Stromgren - Ronni - Klapka
Ciona - Schwindt - Pospisil
Bell - Kerins - Pettersen

Poirier - X
Kuznetsov - X
Solovyov - X
G
Wolf
Sergeev

All things considered, Conroy did pretty well at both bringing players up to the NHL, and in filling the holes left by their departures in the system.

[Red_Baron]

Draft Verhoeff and then trade him and whatever else needed for Igjnla.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

First, let's start at the end. Backlund actually worked on his offhand faceoffs a lot in this offseason. That's why this year the Flames actually have the 5th best FO% 4 on 5 with 53.72%.

Backlund is not the solution and you very well know it. 50% of facebooks the Flames C is on his weak side.

That is not a recepie for success in the best hockey league in the world.