jjgallow

It's actually a very exciting time. We are for sure a bit over-excited in what by all accounts is not a very strong draft, but we have every reason to be over-excited, and all it really means is that we have to "get it right". Even weak drafts have the same winners if you do the homework. A lot of people felt like "making the playoffs" was the standard where we could sleep at night. And we'd trade so many picks to make that happen each year. I never felt any pride in this, it felt like buying an old Corvette at a shady used car dealer using a lien on their parents house. I seen this debate on here many times over many years, but for me, pride is when we are meaningfully contributing to the future of hockey at and elite and at a community level. Come the 2024 draft, we will be front and centre and not just in the top 10. If we "get it right", and we let those kids develop properly, it sends us on a whole different path that I can sleep at night with and feel the City is more deserving of. There was always some fear on here that if the Flames didn't make the playoffs all the fans would disappear. On the contrary, I have some strong feels that this next phase will bring back a lot of people who maybe weren't the loudest but know when they see something worth their free time.

@conundrumed I got an idea for some of your 30 6th rounder picks this year, since you were desperately looking for scouts there. My inspiration was your love of recruiting sons of former Flames, like Tij. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/599383/lucas-st-louis For serious though, who is the Gold Standard in undrafted late-bloomers? And the gold standard in exceptions to the size rule? Now look at what the kids are doing and their trajectory. Most notably Lucas. Mason too early to tell. I won't pretend that they are their Dad. They aren't, this isn't a Tij story. But, interestingly, I came across Lucas quite by accident, looking for undrafted statistical anomalies in the USHL. The exact same kind of screen that would have picked up their Dad. Lucas was at the top of it.

I couldn't stand Yakupov. But that aside, I do believe he was an extremely talented player. Injuries have historically played a major role in "bust" players. Most specifically concussions, but also knees. Yakupov had both. By rights, he is a classic example of rushing a player into the NHL ASAP. He was quite good his first year but a 5'10 18 year old being put into the situations he was? And brought back on the ice as quickly as he was after injuries? He was clearly never the same after that. It was a very Oilers thing to do. The next 5'10 Russian sensation, Michkov, will most likely fair much differently. If he ever makes it over sigh. He's been given time to develop that he otherwise may not have, and develop he has, injury-free as his frame fills in and his smarts mature. In a redraft that year, I would take him #1 or #2 overall, with consideration to Forsberg. Forsberg, btw, who was 6'1 and afforded 2 years of development first.

https://golf.com/news/charlie-woods-shoots-81-us-open-local-qualifier time is on our side.

Thank you for this, To my shock, I am extremely aligned with the vast majority of this list. Although I'm not gonna put my own list on here until much later. They put a value to skill, they didn't see as much elite D as others, they have Tij pegged where I have him pegged (at this moment). They consider Europeans/Russians. But their criteria is more evolved than "plays in pro league cause big". damn. The only initial thing that jumped out at me as odd, was Yakemchuck at #20. I thought that was a bit more of a bump-down than I expected, and the review was all "rising fast", without any reasoning for why he'd be that low. but yeah. I like it.

You don't think....there's any chance at all, he's referring to Niewendyk? It would have been a prominent thing for him when he entered the league. In any case, I don't really care what he says, because he's surely smart enough to not show his hand. I somehow believe he's quite good at compartmentalising conversations and which one goes where. Or he probably wouldn't be able to maintain all the relationships that he does.

Very well said. I would not personally be okay with the LA model, we need a cup. However.... I do think....when you go into a draft, you need to be really honest and say "are we good at drafting this year?" If for whatever reason the answer is no, sell those picks. But, fix it for next year.

Yeah I am not overly concerned with what Conroy says, but quite interested in what he does. "Our assets have little value" is something he is unlikely to say nor do I ever want him to say , even if it's true.

"45% of players had never had an eye exam" wow lol. That is a cool study, thanks for sharing. Would not be surprised if 20 years from now vision is actually taught from a young age. Probably by another name.

This is why the best Oilers players always skate towards their own net

Often we see and hear about players who have great "vision". It's not well defined. But....I think it should be a major factor in rankings. Maybe higher than skating and shot. After all, best player to ever play the game relied almost entirely on this. I feel like some players have it and others don't. That it's not very teachable. Or probably more accurately, we don't yet know how to teach it effectively. If there are coaches who are exceptions to this rule, we should definitely hire them lol

100% Means nothing if you can't do 10.5 years

wrong time for sure yes.

There's that regular season "win now" mode kicking in. Hopefully he fully recovers. They're certainly not the only team in this boat. Usually by round 3, half the teams are on backup goalies.

I would be shocked if they get past the Kings. Even after that 1st game. I would be double shocked if they succeeded in the 2nd round. Even in that first game... you just don't succeed in the playoffs letting 4 goals fly by you.

man. Congrats to.... @cross16? If I read this correctly. I don't think I've ever been so destroyed in one of these before. I really should have read how the points system worked lol. I figured I nailed it. nearly got the (Flames) standings right. Correctly guessed they wouldn't make playoffs. But no nearly dead last lol 😅. Starting to wonder if I should have read the instructions

I would hope they are doing both scouting and analysis. My guess is they are. Lots of reasons to be optimistic right now. I prefer to be optimistic because of reasons, not for the sake of being optimistic. Right now, I am. In general, optimistic. And a tentative fan of Conroy (check back after the draft). Shoring up the scouting dept is big. The addition and serious scouting of Russians, as one example, is big. Not everything is perfect. our draft selection, and failure to trade Markstrom stand out as the big two there. Doesn't mean Conroy is a slouch because I have seen lots of positives that outweigh this. But there's also no reason to turn a blind eye to it. Pointing it out doesn't mean we hate Markstrom, or Honzek. Just means we are being honest and transparent. Because everyone sees it including you. And nobody's giving up on Honzek, nor should anyone here need constant reassurance of that. I think some people here just get low on sleep is all. This is as it should be and hopefully not a revelation for anyone here. Nor is it in any way relevant to who we should have drafted. Not even part of that conversation. Anyone we draft should be afforded time. Pretty straightforward. Let's keep that in mind when we take our top 10 pick this summer.

I personally think Sutter did amazingly well with what he had lol. As a coach, that is. But I'm equally bewildered by Ruff. Still wonder if we have staff or players to poach from Buffalo. Nothing really pops out for me other than Dahlin. Maybe Power? I was never a fan of him though. Komarov? amazingly i see very little that we need, other than their draft picks.

Yup. Don't get me wrong, I will be very cool drafting a D in the top ten. But we should be on this all the time, any way we can. I say we don't have an elite D prospect. But, what i mean, is a high probability one. We do have some potential surprises, like Brzustewicz. We just need more.

there's a first for everything

you guys are so mush lol. it's cute. When they draft Tij, I'm gonna make a Huge thread about how horrible of a pick it was and force you all to defend him lol

Well there's Fox and Hamilton 😅