Calgary Flames Drafting and Development: Your Analysis

[robrob74]

1 hour ago, Heartbreaker said:

Yeah, I was looking at the '14 draft, and thinking the same thing. There's a lot of frustration with Bennett, but the top 3 were never available to us, and who would we take after that? The only names that popped out from the first round, at least to me, were Pastrnak and Larkin. Aside from that, I'd still take Bennett. 

 

Love. 

 

Herein lies the timing of rebuilding. Knowing the quality of an upcoming draft is vital to choosing when to rebuild. 

 

The Bennett draft was lousy. Like you said, Larkin and Pastrnak. Could you put Nik Ehlers in there as well?

 

where would Bennett be drafted in other drafts, like the year before or year after?

[Heartbreaker]

1 hour ago, travel_dude said:

Well, it may not have been the best idea, but they should have taken a closer look at Ehlers.  104 points in his 1st year in the Q.  Sure he was playing with Druin, but 49 goals is nothing to sneer at.  Could have traded down by a slot or two, assuming VAN and NYI were interested in trading up.

 

12 minutes ago, robrob74 said:

The Bennett draft was lousy. Like you said, Larkin and Pastrnak. Could you put Nik Ehlers in there as well?

 

Good point... I overlooked Ehlers, but we're looking with hindsight. Even still, Sam Bennett was the number one ranked prospect among NA skaters. It was an obvious choice, and I can only imagine the backlash if they'd gone off the board. People were still fuming about the Jankowski draft, and it would have been a bad start for Brad Treliving to follow the Feaster model. 

 

We can't be sure where Bennett would have gone in the 2013, or 2015 drafts, if I had to guess - I'd say in '13 he would have projected behind MacKinnon, Drouin, and Jones, but ahead of Monahan. In 2015, I think he'd land right behind Marner, and ahead of Hanifin. In either case, he goes top 5. 

 

Love. 

[travel_dude]

1 minute ago, Heartbreaker said:

 

 

Good point... I overlooked Ehlers, but we're looking with hindsight. Even still, Sam Bennett was the number one ranked prospect among NA skaters. It was an obvious choice, and I can only imagine the backlash if they'd gone off the board. People were still fuming about the Jankowski draft, and it would have been a bad start for Brad Treliving to follow the Feaster model. 

 

We can't be sure where Bennett would have gone in the 2013, or 2015 drafts, if I had to guess - I'd say in '13 he would have projected behind MacKinnon, Drouin, and Jones, but ahead of Monahan. In 2015, I think he'd land right behind Marner, and ahead of Hanifin. In either case, he goes top 5. 

 

Love. 

 

I think it's pretty hard to overlook the powerhouse Mooseheads.  They have produced a lot of great players.  Bennett was a top 3 pick all year, and fell to us.  Burke had a hand in the draft and absolutely loved Bennett.  Going after Ehlers wouldn't be going off the boards per se, but they would only have done that with some compensation to move down a couple of slots.  

 

Considering the other picks that year (MacDonald and Smith), I don't think they would have made good choices with those options available. 

[cross16]

The funny thing about Bennet and hindsight is this place would have lost their collective mind if the Flames had past on him. He was the right pick at the time zero question about it and to think differently is to use complete hindsight. 

 

Bennett is starting to remind me of Ferland of a few years ago, he knows he has more potential and more upside but he's struggling to find what game is going to maximize that. Start of the year, he was the bull in the china shop, physical 3rd line grinder and that earned him a promotion to the top 6. Not wanting to waste it, he put a lot of pressure on himself to be that finesse offensive player and he's gotten away from the bull in the china shop attitude. Problem has been magnified because once again the guy can't catch a freaking break...

 

Similar situation where if he can find the happy medium he can still carve out a really nice career. I'm not giving up on him personally. 

[Cowtownguy]

18 minutes ago, cross16 said:

The funny thing about Bennet and hindsight is this place would have lost their collective mind if the Flames had past on him. He was the right pick at the time zero question about it and to think differently is to use complete hindsight. 

 

Bennett is starting to remind me of Ferland of a few years ago, he knows he has more potential and more upside but he's struggling to find what game is going to maximize that. Start of the year, he was the bull in the china shop, physical 3rd line grinder and that earned him a promotion to the top 6. Not wanting to waste it, he put a lot of pressure on himself to be that finesse offensive player and he's gotten away from the bull in the china shop attitude. Problem has been magnified because once again the guy can't catch a freaking break...

 

Similar situation where if he can find the happy medium he can still carve out a really nice career. I'm not giving up on him personally. 

I have been a Bennett fan from the beginning. Around the draft, I anticipated that he would eventually become part of the core of this team. After all, he was our highest pick thus far. Unfortunately, it does not look like it is going to happen. He is still a good player worth what we pay him, I just find it harder to think that he is going to reach his offensive potential. 

[MAC331]

1 hour ago, cross16 said:

The funny thing about Bennet and hindsight is this place would have lost their collective mind if the Flames had past on him. He was the right pick at the time zero question about it and to think differently is to use complete hindsight. 

 

Bennett is starting to remind me of Ferland of a few years ago, he knows he has more potential and more upside but he's struggling to find what game is going to maximize that. Start of the year, he was the bull in the china shop, physical 3rd line grinder and that earned him a promotion to the top 6. Not wanting to waste it, he put a lot of pressure on himself to be that finesse offensive player and he's gotten away from the bull in the china shop attitude. Problem has been magnified because once again the guy can't catch a freaking break...

 

Similar situation where if he can find the happy medium he can still carve out a really nice career. I'm not giving up on him personally. 

A prime example with respect to Bennett is on this team in Backlund. He was to be this offensive force and it never came leading to a few demotions to the minors to learn a defensive part to his game. Now some upteen years later he is considered one of the best all round forwards in the game. I wish they would put him on LW with Backlund and Frolik and leave him there. He has had to learn on the job in front of everyone and to be frank his management positionally has been so mishandled he is a mess. I feel for the guy seriously.

[rickross]

10 hours ago, cccsberg said:

Most of what you say is right on.  But when you say we don't have another Mony or JH in the ranks you make me laugh.  Neither one of those guys ever made the farm team, skipping right into the NHL.  If we had more they'd do the same.  Down the road, though we COULD have several Top6 forwards from guys we've already drafted, we'll have to wait and see how they develop.  

Yeah! Regarding JH and Monny what I meant were prospects that could make the jump directly to the NHL, true blue chips. I should have included Tkachuk in there too...he's in that group for sure. Whats crazy is how many 2013's draftees we've gone through, Lindholm, Monny, Lazar, Shinkaruk, Poirier, Klimchuk and recently Kyrby Richel. My gawd...I'm pretty sure they're all 1st rounders. Only 2 are bonafide NHLers, imagine the even greater depth we could have had if more of those players had panned out. 

[rickross]

4 hours ago, cross16 said:

The funny thing about Bennet and hindsight is this place would have lost their collective mind if the Flames had past on him. He was the right pick at the time zero question about it and to think differently is to use complete hindsight. 

 

Bennett is starting to remind me of Ferland of a few years ago, he knows he has more potential and more upside but he's struggling to find what game is going to maximize that. Start of the year, he was the bull in the china shop, physical 3rd line grinder and that earned him a promotion to the top 6. Not wanting to waste it, he put a lot of pressure on himself to be that finesse offensive player and he's gotten away from the bull in the china shop attitude. Problem has been magnified because once again the guy can't catch a freaking break...

 

Similar situation where if he can find the happy medium he can still carve out a really nice career. I'm not giving up on him personally. 

Yup! Bennett was a no brainer pick at 4 at the time. It's easy to forget he was the concensus #1 pick for a good portion of that year. The whole no pull up fiasco at the combine hurt his stock. I think at the time the vast majority would have been livid if the Flames didn't take Bennett at 4. Our highest draft pick ever and he's making a living on the 3rd line is why he's been such a topic of discussion. 

[sak22]

3 hours ago, rickross said:

Yup! Bennett was a no brainer pick at 4 at the time. It's easy to forget he was the concensus #1 pick for a good portion of that year. The whole no pull up fiasco at the combine hurt his stock. I think at the time the vast majority would have been livid if the Flames didn't take Bennett at 4. Our highest draft pick ever and he's making a living on the 3rd line is why he's been such a topic of discussion. 

Ekblad moved up primarily because he stood way ahead of any other defenders in the draft and had the physical tools to put him in the league immediately.  And it was almost no secret Edmonton was going with Drai if Ekblad was off the table.  I went in fully expecting one of the Sam's to be available for us, but as much as people mention we should have taken Nylander, Ehlers, Pastrnak or Larkin, my greatest fear was that the need for truculence would bring Virtanen or Ritchie, who at the moment aren't huge drop-offs from Bennett, but I still believe Bennett can and will be the better of the 3, but at least he's not Dal Colle.  It's easy to look back now and say were a better team with a different pick, but there are 29 teams who passed on our top scorer multiple times and never signed our captain, 2 of our biggest rivals passed on Tkachuk, and Carolina passed on Monahan and traded the guy they took instead to us, so the hindsight game can always go both ways.

[Thebrewcrew]

No issue with the Bennett pick at all. There’s not a GM on the planet who wouldn’t have taken him 4th. Anyone saying we should have taken Pastrnak, Ehlers or Nylander is crazy IMO as Bennett was highly regarded and some thought he could go 1st

 

 

My issue with the 2014 draft is what we did in the 2nd round . Demko was regarded as the best goalie available and we went with Mcdonald, I would have even rather went Nedelkovkc than McDonald at the time as I was i was higher on both guys than McDonald .

 

Then we went with Hunter Smith on a pick essentially gifted to us from COL to take Berra. Smith pick was always destined to fail, for starters he played on a stacked Oshawa team, making him appear better than he was. However he wasn’t even a p/pg. The year prior he had 1 assist in 30 games... the next handful of picks yielded Montour, Dvorak, Donato. But once again hind sight ...

[Khrox]

So, 2014 was Tre's first year as our GM (he was hired in april), so I imagine that year the draft while under Tre was mostly Burke inspired:
1st: Sam Bennett (278 games, 46 goals, 97 points)
The other 5 picks (Mason McDonald, Hunter Smith, Brandon Hickey, Adam Ollas-Mattson, Austin Carrol) have yet to play in the NHL with only McDonald and AOM being in the organization still)

2015 the first year where Tre would have been 100% in charge of it all we got:
5 players, 3 are currently playing for the Flames at the NHL level (Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington, and Andrew Mangiapane), 1 is playing in Russia (Pavel Karnuakhov, so I think we still have his rights but no contract offered), and 1 is playing Canadian College hockey after his OHL career (and not with the organization anymore): Riley Bruce. So 3/5, still with us, 1 is a full-timer (Andersson) and 2 are callups that have played very well. Not bad.

2016:
We drafted 9 players, 1 is a full-time NHLer (Matty Tkachuk). One of the others started the year on the team, and has 20 games played before going to the AHL (Dillon Dube). 2 more are in the organization (Matthew Phillips and Tyler Parsons) in the AHL, 2 more are in College (I believe we have their rights for 1 more year?), 1 was used in a trade to get us Lindholm and Hanifin (Fox). I believe we still have rights to Eetu Tuulola .

2017:

5 picks, one was an NHLer to start the season (Valimaki). The other 4 we have rights to (one is in the ECHL, 2 in the CHL, 1 in Europe). I figure maybe one of them will become a tweener, but not high hopes (highest pick of those 4 was a 4th rounder).

2018:
Way too early to see what we got here, but of the 5, 3 are PPG+ in their respective leagues, and I have a strong feeling that 2 of them will either make the NHL or become tweeners (Pospisil is likely a tweener that could basically be a 4th line version of Tkachuk, and Petterson I think could be a middle six winger).


Overall, of the drafts we've had since Tre became GM, 7 of our 30 picks have NHL experience (with 3-4 being fulltimers and the others really pushing for it). 6 of our 24 picks after 2014 (where it would have mostly been Burkes image for the team) have NHL experience, with another 5 playing in our system (AHL or ECHL). Tre has done a good job so far (as has our scouting). Our development is improving over the previous 5 years as well (which has resulted in 7 full-time NHLers, only 3 of which are with our organization still, Monahan, Gaudreau and Jankowski, with Ferland, Baertschi, Granlund, Kulak all being gone, and you can argue an 8th fulltimer in Laurent Brossoit who is the backup goalie for Winnipeg this year, his third stint in the NHL, first where he started the season there), and we have 1 other pick in the organization (Gillies) still that isn't an established NHLer. In those previous 5 years we have had 32 picks. So we're putting about the same amount of people in the NHL, but we are retaining them, and they are a higher quality. So I'd say under Tre our development has improved as well since we're keeping more, and we're looking at a higher rate with NHL games (even if there are less full-timers currently, but give it a year or two and that could change).

[robrob74]

5 hours ago, Khrox said:

So, 2014 was Tre's first year as our GM (he was hired in april), so I imagine that year the draft while under Tre was mostly Burke inspired:
1st: Sam Bennett (278 games, 46 goals, 97 points)
The other 5 picks (Mason McDonald, Hunter Smith, Brandon Hickey, Adam Ollas-Mattson, Austin Carrol) have yet to play in the NHL with only McDonald and AOM being in the organization still)

2015 the first year where Tre would have been 100% in charge of it all we got:
5 players, 3 are currently playing for the Flames at the NHL level (Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington, and Andrew Mangiapane), 1 is playing in Russia (Pavel Karnuakhov, so I think we still have his rights but no contract offered), and 1 is playing Canadian College hockey after his OHL career (and not with the organization anymore): Riley Bruce. So 3/5, still with us, 1 is a full-timer (Andersson) and 2 are callups that have played very well. Not bad.

2016:
We drafted 9 players, 1 is a full-time NHLer (Matty Tkachuk). One of the others started the year on the team, and has 20 games played before going to the AHL (Dillon Dube). 2 more are in the organization (Matthew Phillips and Tyler Parsons) in the AHL, 2 more are in College (I believe we have their rights for 1 more year?), 1 was used in a trade to get us Lindholm and Hanifin (Fox). I believe we still have rights to Eetu Tuulola .

2017:

5 picks, one was an NHLer to start the season (Valimaki). The other 4 we have rights to (one is in the ECHL, 2 in the CHL, 1 in Europe). I figure maybe one of them will become a tweener, but not high hopes (highest pick of those 4 was a 4th rounder).

2018:
Way too early to see what we got here, but of the 5, 3 are PPG+ in their respective leagues, and I have a strong feeling that 2 of them will either make the NHL or become tweeners (Pospisil is likely a tweener that could basically be a 4th line version of Tkachuk, and Petterson I think could be a middle six winger).


Overall, of the drafts we've had since Tre became GM, 7 of our 30 picks have NHL experience (with 3-4 being fulltimers and the others really pushing for it). 6 of our 24 picks after 2014 (where it would have mostly been Burkes image for the team) have NHL experience, with another 5 playing in our system (AHL or ECHL). Tre has done a good job so far (as has our scouting). Our development is improving over the previous 5 years as well (which has resulted in 7 full-time NHLers, only 3 of which are with our organization still, Monahan, Gaudreau and Jankowski, with Ferland, Baertschi, Granlund, Kulak all being gone, and you can argue an 8th fulltimer in Laurent Brossoit who is the backup goalie for Winnipeg this year, his third stint in the NHL, first where he started the season there), and we have 1 other pick in the organization (Gillies) still that isn't an established NHLer. In those previous 5 years we have had 32 picks. So we're putting about the same amount of people in the NHL, but we are retaining them, and they are a higher quality. So I'd say under Tre our development has improved as well since we're keeping more, and we're looking at a higher rate with NHL games (even if there are less full-timers currently, but give it a year or two and that could change).

 

That means that he has a .233 batting average so far. Isn’t it like baseball where you’d want a .300 average?

[MAC331]

1 minute ago, robrob74 said:

 

That means that he has a .233 batting average so far. Isn’t it like baseball where you’d want a .300 average?

It would be good to have 3 good drafts in row from here. Starting this offseason BT should be able to trade a player like Frolik and get additional level 2 or 3 round type picks. Take another 2 years and you can start considering trades of Backlund, Ryan and Neal.

[Thebrewcrew]

1 hour ago, robrob74 said:

 

That means that he has a .233 batting average so far. Isn’t it like baseball where you’d want a .300 average?

Watched a video around draft time last year, can’t remember which front office guy it was or even which team it was but they said if an organization gets 2 players a draft that end up NHLers they view that to be success 

[robrob74]

4 minutes ago, Thebrewcrew said:

Watched a video around draft time last year, can’t remember which front office guy it was or even which team it was but they said if an organization gets 2 players a draft that end up NHLers they view that to be success 

 

So BT is close. 

 

If he has a 7/30 record, he has been drafting for 4 yearsish? That is nearly 2 per on average. Now that isn’t counting a few that are still developing. 

[cross16]

24 minutes ago, robrob74 said:

 

So BT is close. 

 

If he has a 7/30 record, he has been drafting for 4 yearsish? That is nearly 2 per on average. Now that isn’t counting a few that are still developing. 

 

That "average" is also not taking into account that the general rule of thumb is it takes a minimum of 3 years to grade a draft. So really in all fairness to him we really should only be judging him on the 2015 draft. To take the "results" from the 2016 draft is still getting ahead of ourselves so IMO it only makes the results that much more impressive.

 

Obviously that's bypassing the 2014 Draft but I agree with above that it's not fair to put that on BT. Generally speaking teams don't have good drafts in that transition years between GMs especially when the GM was from outside. Not enough time to change the scouting guidelines, standard etc. 

[cross16]

11 hours ago, Thebrewcrew said:

No issue with the Bennett pick at all. There’s not a GM on the planet who wouldn’t have taken him 4th. Anyone saying we should have taken Pastrnak, Ehlers or Nylander is crazy IMO as Bennett was highly regarded and some thought he could go 1st

 

 

My issue with the 2014 draft is what we did in the 2nd round . Demko was regarded as the best goalie available and we went with Mcdonald, I would have even rather went Nedelkovkc than McDonald at the time as I was i was higher on both guys than McDonald .

 

Then we went with Hunter Smith on a pick essentially gifted to us from COL to take Berra. Smith pick was always destined to fail, for starters he played on a stacked Oshawa team, making him appear better than he was. However he wasn’t even a p/pg. The year prior he had 1 assist in 30 games... the next handful of picks yielded Montour, Dvorak, Donato. But once again hind sight ...

 

Often hindsight isn't far, for example Bennett and even Mason over Demko to be hoenst, but Smith is one of those pick where you don't need hindsight. Was a pretty terrible pick from the word go and for me at least personally, never made sense. 

 

That being said the 2014 draft is also looking like a pretty big dud across the board. Almost as many players from the 2015 draft had made the NHL as the 2014 draft and % of players in the NHL from 2014 is the lowest in the last 6-7 drafts. 

[Khrox]

9 hours ago, robrob74 said:

 

That means that he has a .233 batting average so far. Isn’t it like baseball where you’d want a .300 average?

I mean, I fully expect that to go up, as the 2018 draft class is currently in their draft+1 year right now (and I believe every pick we took that year was round 4+ and went the college route, so it'd be more fair for 2-3 years before even seeing if any of them are ready to turn pro).

[robrob74]

3 hours ago, Khrox said:

I mean, I fully expect that to go up, as the 2018 draft class is currently in their draft+1 year right now (and I believe every pick we took that year was round 4+ and went the college route, so it'd be more fair for 2-3 years before even seeing if any of them are ready to turn pro).

 

Yup, that’s not taking into account the possible 2017 picks

[cccsberg]

On 2018-12-11 at 10:21 AM, cross16 said:

100% agree

 

BPA is subjective not objective like some like to argue. I competely reject the idea that there should be  master scouting list or consensus among prospects. Your list and your BPA criteria should absolutely change and be adapted to fit the vision of your team and what style of game you want to play. 

 

 

The likelihood of this happening is pretty much zero so it's a pretty extreme example to counter the point. Most teams, and Flames are included in this, group in tiers so if you've already taken a goalie or two your list should be flexible so that you just pick another player with the same tier provided you have equal grades on both players. But if there is a goalie that is in a tier above everyone else, then I would fully support taking them even if another goalie has already been picked. 

 

The possibility or goal of drafting every element of your team is simply not realistic. You are going to have to make trades or sign free agents to fill holes and on top of that needs change all the time so if you draft for need what's to say that need will still be there in 2-3 years? Going into the Valamki draft the consensus was the Flames needed a forward but took Valamaki and how does that decision look now?

 

Pick good players and you always have assets that you can move in trade. Reach for needs or pick players for other reasons you wind up with prospects no one wants (see Darryl Sutter)

BPA is a fantasy supported by scouts and reporters and lots of fans to justify their jobs and favourites but with little reality in actual fact.  Even if we drafted thirty two 25 year old pros there would be no fully consensus BPA list everyone would agree on.  Not even close.  If you think of it that way it exposes the BPA problems and the issues about team needs.  Heck, even if you tried to get a BPA for top player in the league between the "supposed" top 5 you would get a lot of arguments.  It all depends on how you value different skills and abilities versus someone else.  Would a goalie be in that list, the most important player on any team?   If you set a rigid criteria, like Goals scored, then fine, Ovechkin wins every year, but as you broaden the terms it quickly becomes muddy.  The exact same thing happens for 17 year old kids.  On top of that, the player who might have been 100% the correct pick at 17 years old may not develop any further and become a bomb at 20 or 23 years old.... Bennett anyone?  Since most teams are drafting for those years down the road, developmental projections are critical and if they don't happen you look like a fool.  Take Hunter Smith for example.  The guy had size, toughness and was just starting to score and put it together at 17, all things a team needed at the draft at that time, functional toughness, which today is hardly needed, or so it seems.  Unfortunately the skating and scoring never evolved enough to make him a player at the next level.  Also look at McDonald versus Demko.  Do you pick proven track record or pick burgeoning potential?  Because it won't become critical till 4-5 years later it's a very difficult choice.  

[robrob74]

2 hours ago, cccsberg said:

BPA is a fantasy supported by scouts and reporters and lots of fans to justify their jobs and favourites but with little reality in actual fact.  Even if we drafted thirty two 25 year old pros there would be no fully consensus BPA list everyone would agree on.  Not even close.  If you think of it that way it exposes the BPA problems and the issues about team needs.  Heck, even if you tried to get a BPA for top player in the league between the "supposed" top 5 you would get a lot of arguments.  It all depends on how you value different skills and abilities versus someone else.  Would a goalie be in that list, the most important player on any team?   If you set a rigid criteria, like Goals scored, then fine, Ovechkin wins every year, but as you broaden the terms it quickly becomes muddy.  The exact same thing happens for 17 year old kids.  On top of that, the player who might have been 100% the correct pick at 17 years old may not develop any further and become a bomb at 20 or 23 years old.... Bennett anyone?  Since most teams are drafting for those years down the road, developmental projections are critical and if they don't happen you look like a fool.  Take Hunter Smith for example.  The guy had size, toughness and was just starting to score and put it together at 17, all things a team needed at the draft at that time, functional toughness, which today is hardly needed, or so it seems.  Unfortunately the skating and scoring never evolved enough to make him a player at the next level.  Also look at McDonald versus Demko.  Do you pick proven track record or pick burgeoning potential?  Because it won't become critical till 4-5 years later it's a very difficult choice.  

 

Back then, the young and speed was just starting to take off. Only a few teams had that philosophy. We drafted Smith Kanzig Kanzig and hired skating, and skills coaches thinking that we could Love It or List It with our hockey players. Or went about drafting players like in an episode of Property Brothers. Draft a lower quality player and build them up. 

[rickross]

With all the recent graduates from the farm, anyone have an idea of who the next man up in our system is? I know there's players like Zavgorodny, Ruzicka, Roman and Emilio Peterssen having pretty solid seasons. Lots of hoping considering the majority of our recent picks have all been late round picks but anyone have a pulse on any potential breakthroughs in the ranks?

[travel_dude]

7 minutes ago, rickross said:

With all the recent graduates from the farm, anyone have an idea of who the next man up in our system is? I know there's players like Zavgorodny, Ruzicka, Roman and Emilio Peterssen having pretty solid seasons. Lots of hoping considering the majority of our recent picks have all been late round picks but anyone have a pulse on any potential breakthroughs in the ranks?

 

Ruzicka is probably the best case of jumping to the AHL next season.  Will be old enough.  Really needs a good coach to work the bugs out of him.  He seems to lack motivation.  Zav will only be turning pro if it's on the Flames next season.  He's been looking like he's ready, maybe just a little small.  He's 175 pounds, so he could be the goal scoring version of Gaudreau with a little more beef and a harder shot.

 

One guy we never seem to talk about is Filip Sveningsson.  Don't know if he makes it to NA next season, but would be a dark horse.

[cccsberg]

4 hours ago, travel_dude said:

 

Ruzicka is probably the best case of jumping to the AHL next season.  Will be old enough.  Really needs a good coach to work the bugs out of him.  He seems to lack motivation.  Zav will only be turning pro if it's on the Flames next season.  He's been looking like he's ready, maybe just a little small.  He's 175 pounds, so he could be the goal scoring version of Gaudreau with a little more beef and a harder shot.

 

One guy we never seem to talk about is Filip Sveningsson.  Don't know if he makes it to NA next season, but would be a dark horse.

Tuulola?

[travel_dude]

23 minutes ago, cccsberg said:

Tuulola?

 

He's playing in Europe in the SM-liiga, which is a top pro league in Finland.

Would he trade that in for $70k US per season in North America?

Don't know.

I think he wants to play here, but would need to have some real chance at making the NHL.