2024 NHL draft - A New Hope

[Thebrewcrew]

8 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

 

It helps to draft top 10 and draft so many times.  We should get used to this for the next 3 years.

I liked taking the defenceman in the top ten this year. They take the longest to develop and this really is the first year of a rebuild. The forwards can develop faster, they're coming in later years.

 

I know lots wanted Iginla, but for the first pick of this rebuild to be at a premium position is very important.

 

This wasn't a draft with a ton of centre options. That changes a lot in the 2025 draft.

 

I think Flames fans should feel optimistic. Been a rough two years. But things will turn around. I think they've got a really smart GM

[The_People1]

38 minutes ago, Thebrewcrew said:

I liked taking the defenceman in the top ten this year. They take the longest to develop and this really is the first year of a rebuild. The forwards can develop faster, they're coming in later years.

 

I know lots wanted Iginla, but for the first pick of this rebuild to be at a premium position is very important.

 

This wasn't a draft with a ton of centre options. That changes a lot in the 2025 draft.

 

I think Flames fans should feel optimistic. Been a rough two years. But things will turn around. I think they've got a really smart GM

 

Yes trues D take the longest to develop and Parekh needs time to bulk up and develop his defensive game further before making the NHL.  He should return to the OHL for one more year at least. And not only that we took a D, but RHS RD was a massive need.  Parekh came into the draft as arguably the 2nd best RD in the class and we got him.

 

I wanted the Flames to take a RD with their 28 and guessed Mews would be on their radar.  To get him in round 3 pick 74 instead of 28, wow.

 

We now have 3 RD in the system who have potential to see NHL time in the future.

 

I know a few here wanted Catton but we never got the chance.  Same with Tij... Utah did us a favour to be honest.  The only "what ifs" will be Dickinson and Buium.  I think both will prove to be better overall D but Parekh has the edge on the offensive side of the game.

[robrob74]

1 hour ago, Thebrewcrew said:

I liked taking the defenceman in the top ten this year. They take the longest to develop and this really is the first year of a rebuild. The forwards can develop faster, they're coming in later years.

 

I know lots wanted Iginla, but for the first pick of this rebuild to be at a premium position is very important.

 

This wasn't a draft with a ton of centre options. That changes a lot in the 2025 draft.

 

I think Flames fans should feel optimistic. Been a rough two years. But things will turn around. I think they've got a really smart GM

In perspective, it has been a rough two years. We had some ok years, but since the Hamilton deal it's been a bit rough off and on. So this has been one of the drafts that feels like a change of philosophy and while BT did a good job of setting up the organization scouting by continuing Burke's work, it seems Conroy (hopefully continues beyond this draft) is running with it by using the management and scouting team. 

[robrob74]

34 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

 

Yes trues D take the longest to develop and Parekh needs time to bulk up and develop his defensive game further before making the NHL.  He should return to the OHL for one more year at least. And not only that we took a D, but RHS RD was a massive need.  Parekh came into the draft as arguably the 2nd best RD in the class and we got him.

 

I wanted the Flames to take a RD with their 28 and guessed Mews would be on their radar.  To get him in round 3 pick 74 instead of 28, wow.

 

We now have 3 RD in the system who have potential to see NHL time in the future.

 

I know a few here wanted Catton but we never got the chance.  Same with Tij... Utah did us a favour to be honest.  The only "what ifs" will be Dickinson and Buium.  I think both will prove to be better overall D but Parekh has the edge on the offensive side of the game.

I'm his post pick interview he mentioned the Flames picked him for his Offensive ability. I just hope he wants to develop the D side. One thing they say about him is that he's competitive. Just winning a champ helps. 
 

I think the hardest part of drafting is finding kids with that willingness to compete. It's a kind of edge. Hope his compete gets him deciding D is as important  as scoring/ 

[The_People1]

I'm trying to read up a bit on the goalie we took but looks like we went waaay off the board and he wasn't even ranked by Central Scouting?  

 

https://www.nhl.com/draft/prospects/2024/international-goalie

 

Looks like he was the third string goalie on a pretty bad junior team?

 

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=280858

 

I get that goalies can be voodoo sometimes but did we have to take him in the 3rd round?  He wouldn't have been there with the 7th?  I say this knowing nothing about him of course.

[travel_dude]

39 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

 

Yes trues D take the longest to develop and Parekh needs time to bulk up and develop his defensive game further before making the NHL.  He should return to the OHL for one more year at least. And not only that we took a D, but RHS RD was a massive need.  Parekh came into the draft as arguably the 2nd best RD in the class and we got him.

 

I wanted the Flames to take a RD with their 28 and guessed Mews would be on their radar.  To get him in round 3 pick 74 instead of 28, wow.

 

We now have 3 RD in the system who have potential to see NHL time in the future.

 

I know a few here wanted Catton but we never got the chance.  Same with Tij... Utah did us a favour to be honest.  The only "what ifs" will be Dickinson and Buium.  I think both will prove to be better overall D but Parekh has the edge on the offensive side of the game.

 

I never warmed up to Catton.  I expected him to go outside the top 10 but he dropped a lot.  Maybe we looked at him.  Anyway we have to be a little more strategic.  Losing a spot to SEA just becuase we tied and had more Regulation Wins is sick.  What moral victories did we have?  

[travel_dude]

5 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

I'm trying to read up a bit on the goalie we took but looks like we went waaay off the board and he wasn't even ranked by Central Scouting?  

 

https://www.nhl.com/draft/prospects/2024/international-goalie

 

Looks like he was the third string goalie on a pretty bad junior team?

 

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=280858

 

I get that goalies can be voodoo sometimes but did we have to take him in the 3rd round?  He wouldn't have been there with the 7th?  I say this knowing nothing about him of course.

 

A couple of places ranked him but nothing substantial.

He played the latter part of the year in what seemed a different team setup.

29 games, 1.99 GAA, .944 SA% - 5 shutouts

5 playoff games 2.14 GAA .945 SA% - 2 shutouts

 

Was the best goalie on that team.

[The_People1]

1 minute ago, robrob74 said:

I'm his post pick interview he mentioned the Flames picked him for his Offensive ability. I just hope he wants to develop the D side. One thing they say about him is that he's competitive. Just winning a champ helps. 
 

I think the hardest part of drafting is finding kids with that willingness to compete. It's a kind of edge. Hope his compete gets him deciding D is as important  as scoring/ 

 

Ya in one of his interviews, he mentioned Sergei Samsonov training him... And especially giving him pointers about playing defense at the NHL level.  They watch game film together.  But looks like Sergei Samsonov is a scout for the Carolina Hurricane so not sure how he can coach Parekh??  Or was it another Samsonov?  Not sure.  And lastly, Sergei Samsonov was not exactly known for defense during his time in the NHL... But still, that's an offensive minded forward who understands the bare minimum level of defense Parekh needs to accomplish to stick in the NHL.  It's relatable to Parekh who is an offense-first player.

 

Yes, the kid is a winner.  There's still a lot of developing to do but it sounds like he understands this, especially about bulking up and getting stronger.

[robrob74]

1 hour ago, The_People1 said:

I'm trying to read up a bit on the goalie we took but looks like we went waaay off the board and he wasn't even ranked by Central Scouting?  

 

https://www.nhl.com/draft/prospects/2024/international-goalie

 

Looks like he was the third string goalie on a pretty bad junior team?

 

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=280858

 

I get that goalies can be voodoo sometimes but did we have to take him in the 3rd round?  He wouldn't have been there with the 7th?  I say this knowing nothing about him of course.

 

in the draft thread earlier, I explained how Sigalet scouted him. They play 3 goalies to develop the third one while they're young. So while the other goalies get the playing time, he develops.  
 

They said next year they'll be the one getting time and a kid will do what he just did. 
 

Maybe they could have waited but the reaction on the radio feed was positive. 

[jjgallow]

2 hours ago, The_People1 said:

I'm trying to read up a bit on the goalie we took but looks like we went waaay off the board and he wasn't even ranked by Central Scouting?  

 

https://www.nhl.com/draft/prospects/2024/international-goalie

 

Looks like he was the third string goalie on a pretty bad junior team?

 

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=280858

 

I get that goalies can be voodoo sometimes but did we have to take him in the 3rd round?  He wouldn't have been there with the 7th?  I say this knowing nothing about him of course.

 

I give this the thumbs up for what it's worth (lol).   You would be shocked to know that I went on a long rant here 2 months ago about how central scouting totally bungled Russian goalie rankings.  I don't know why, or what the motivation was, but it is abundantly clear that they totally messed it up for 2024.   

 

Some had him ranked #1.   He was a sleeper but not That much of a sleeper.  I am quite sure there were 10 teams waiting to take him in the draft.   I think Conroy has an unwritten rule to take 1 goalie in every draft (previous GMs would take 1 every 2 drafts).  He's doubled down on them.    And he's caught onto the Russian trend (along with anyone who's watched the Stanley cup finals for last decade).   So we can assume he ranked the top Russian goalies, and said "let's get the best one, even if it costs us a little extra".

 

Zarubin would be that.

 

A stats guy like myself would pick him out of a haystack.  then need a scout to qualify it.   A number of Conroy's picks this year looked to be stats influenced.   Take that as good or bad, but I am extremely pleased.

 

 

https://www.toutsurlehockey.com/tslh-espoirs/kirill-zarubin-mhls-hidden-gem-for-the-2024-nhl-draft/

 

 

 

[conundrumed]

Can't find a simple list.lol

So here'a simple list:

Rd 1

9th oa: Zayne Parekh - RD

28th oa: Matvei Gridin - LS RW

Rd 2

41st oa: Andrew Basha - LW

62nd oa: Jacob Battaglia - LS RW

Rd 3

73rd oa: Henry Mews - RD

84th oa: Kirill Zarubin - G

Rd 4

106th oa: Trevor Hoskin - RHC/RW D+2 season

Rd 5

150th oa: Luke Misa - LHC - about double his worst ranking lol

Rd 6

170th oa: Hunter Laing - RHC

177th oa: Eric Jamieson - LD D+1 season

 

Guess what kids? We've now got ourselves a pretty solid prospect pool. Let's keep piling up the assets!!

Misa at 150, holy crap. I'm still in shock. Want pace and entries, watch him. I've said Catton-lite, and I firmly believe that he was the closest C to Catton in this draft. He plays very similarly.

Let's get Michael Misa next year and have a Hughes-like fam celebration. lol

Nice picks throughout. Colour me impressed.

The guys I bolded are outstanding value.

I kind of knew that we were scouting Muskegon pretty heavily, so Gridin wasn't a huge surprise. I thought we might trade up from 41 to maybe 35ish for him, but it didn't matter when we took Basha at 41.

What a solid draft. I was a bit down, maybe a lot, after Day 1. But I also realize that I'm probably a few sandwiches short of a picnic compared to how the Flames are able to scout. Add in, Edmonton taking O'Reilly put a knot in my panties. lol I may never forgive Briere and Philly.

One thing I didn't know about Parekh is finishing high school early and moving on to University courses. That's a lot of perspective. That's advanced maturity.

 

[jjgallow]

22 hours ago, phoenix66 said:

Dont get me wrong , I love the Parekh pick..but I would have gone Eiserman at 9..I think he'll be that guy 

 

Unbelievable that Eiserman went 20.    I feel a lot of team are going to have some big regrets about him.

 

But I don't know that it will be us.   Parekh was a gamble, for sure.  Could go either way.    But if Parekh comes anywhere close to his ceiling, we will never regret it.    A high-end RD beats a LW any day.

 

Of course there is a scenario where Parekh flops, and then sure there will be a lot to say.    But the methodology we used to select him, we used it through the whole draft.   High ceilings all day long.    It's extremely unlikely that they all flop.     Looking at this draft year as a whole, I think it will be  exceptional for us even without Parekh.   And of course assuming he turns out (which is a project), a franchise-altering draft.

[conundrumed]

Tod is absolutely lit up here. Great to see our scouts having some meaning.lol

If I saw these guys at a restaurant in Vegas last night, I'd have told the waitress to bring me their tab. Outside of Terry, he can get his own.lol PAY for golf tourneys for god sakes. Half Irish, half Scottish. Half of him wants to drink, the other half doesn't wanna buy.lol j/k.

Excellent job by Conroy getting the scouts picks, excellent job by the scouts in delivering. This is the way it's supposed to be, and Tod looks totally jacked, as he should.

You took zero of the guys I ranted about, outside of Misa, so that's probably a good thing. lol

 

[phoenix66]

2 hours ago, conundrumed said:

Can't find a simple list.lol

So here'a simple list:

Rd 1

9th oa: Zayne Parekh - RD

28th oa: Matvei Gridin - LS RW

Rd 2

41st oa: Andrew Basha - LW

62nd oa: Jacob Battaglia - LS RW

Rd 3

73rd oa: Henry Mews - RD

84th oa: Kirill Zarubin - G

Rd 4

106th oa: Trevor Hoskin - RHC/RW D+2 season

Rd 5

150th oa: Luke Misa - LHC - about double his worst ranking lol

Rd 6

170th oa: Hunter Laing - RHC

177th oa: Eric Jamieson - LD D+1 season

 

Guess what kids? We've now got ourselves a pretty solid prospect pool. Let's keep piling up the assets!!

Misa at 150, holy crap. I'm still in shock. Want pace and entries, watch him. I've said Catton-lite, and I firmly believe that he was the closest C to Catton in this draft. He plays very similarly.

Let's get Michael Misa next year and have a Hughes-like fam celebration. lol

Nice picks throughout. Colour me impressed.

The guys I bolded are outstanding value.

I kind of knew that we were scouting Muskegon pretty heavily, so Gridin wasn't a huge surprise. I thought we might trade up from 41 to maybe 35ish for him, but it didn't matter when we took Basha at 41.

What a solid draft. I was a bit down, maybe a lot, after Day 1. But I also realize that I'm probably a few sandwiches short of a picnic compared to how the Flames are able to scout. Add in, Edmonton taking O'Reilly put a knot in my panties. lol I may never forgive Briere and Philly.

One thing I didn't know about Parekh is finishing high school early and moving on to University courses. That's a lot of perspective. That's advanced maturity.

 

 

Nice recap of the picks here from Button..

 

Apparently Hunter Laing ended up being Iggy's vote . Says they have watched him last few years ..were debating and Iggy gave the push to take the kid ..having watched and coached against him last few years 

 

https://www.nhl.com/flames/video/button-s-draft-wrap-6355995088112

 

 

 

[cross16]

13 hours ago, cberg said:

Waiting for the draft evaluation blogs, but from the post draft interviews of Conroy and Button, they were both THRILLED!  Button said he was ecstatic and was virtually jumping for joy in the interview.  They noted a massive infusion of skill and hockey IQ, as well as getting multiple targeted players and a good spread of positions.

 

I’d be interested in your evaluations of the guys Flames drafted, especially from you guys more attuned to the prospects.

 

From my limited knowledge, it looks like we’ve indeed picked up massive skill, hockey IQ, speed, good size and some toughness.  I also liked that most draftees were from the CHL so avoiding some of the College issues.  Thoughts?

I haven’t reviewed all the picks but I will add j actually don’t think the flames did much different in this draft in terms of their process. The flames for some time now have prioritized a combination of hockey sense, athleticism, and competitiveness with their picks. What makes this draft stand out is they finally had the picks to take advantage of it but the type of player they were after didn’t change for me. 
 

they picked a lot of their type. Board fell their way in a lot of cases which I found interesting. 
 

as excited as I am the one downside I have is typically I find when you have a draft that is so universally praised, the resume don’t always match the hype 

[conundrumed]

8 minutes ago, cross16 said:

as excited as I am the one downside I have is typically I find when you have a draft that is so universally praised, the resume don’t always match the hype 

Damn man, I live by this mantra. Be careful of unanimous opinions. They are outright dangerous.

I love that I will have zero problems following these prospects, though. OHL and U of M is really easy for me.

I will definitely be inquiring re the Hoskin pick, now that I know who chose him. lol He's a great scout, as much as I tease.

I really wanted Fischer for potential. But go figure, Sarnia's own Doug Armstrong grabbed him earlier than anticipated. Not surprised, St. Loo is always above average at drafting. I think they really struck on Dmen this year after tidy work at forwards last year.

Nobody, but nobody, has a bad word to say about Army in these parts. One of the most genuine people you'll meet.

[travel_dude]

6 hours ago, jjgallow said:

I give this the thumbs up for what it's worth (lol).   You would be shocked to know that I went on a long rant here 2 months ago about how central scouting totally bungled Russian goalie rankings.  I don't know why, or what the motivation was, but it is abundantly clear that they totally messed it up for 2024.   

 

Some had him ranked #1.   He was a sleeper but not That much of a sleeper.  I am quite sure there were 10 teams waiting to take him in the draft.   I think Conroy has an unwritten rule to take 1 goalie in every draft (previous GMs would take 1 every 2 drafts).  He's doubled down on them.    And he's caught onto the Russian trend (along with anyone who's watched the Stanley cup finals for last decade).   So we can assume he ranked the top Russian goalies, and said "let's get the best one, even if it costs us a little extra".

 

Zarubin would be that.

 

A stats guy like myself would pick him out of a haystack.  then need a scout to qualify it.   A number of Conroy's picks this year looked to be stats influenced.   Take that as good or bad, but I am extremely pleased.

 

Honestly, I didn't look at goalie rankings before the draft.  I trusted that they would take on and that they are decent judges of goalie ability.  We're not talking about ranking MacDonald over Demko here.  And it's not looking at a huge guy that has some athletics to match size.

 

The take these guys had on him is what I see just by looking at stats.  The MHL is not top tier but it's not VHL either.  He did well.  Remains to be seen if he gets a call to the KHL.  I think he is signed for one season remaining, so no idea if he would be coming over to Calgary after that.  Might actually benefit to play a year in the KHL.  

[robrob74]

3 hours ago, conundrumed said:

Can't find a simple list.lol

So here'a simple list:

Rd 1

9th oa: Zayne Parekh - RD

28th oa: Matvei Gridin - LS RW

Rd 2

41st oa: Andrew Basha - LW

62nd oa: Jacob Battaglia - LS RW

Rd 3

73rd oa: Henry Mews - RD

84th oa: Kirill Zarubin - G

Rd 4

106th oa: Trevor Hoskin - RHC/RW D+2 season

Rd 5

150th oa: Luke Misa - LHC - about double his worst ranking lol

Rd 6

170th oa: Hunter Laing - RHC

177th oa: Eric Jamieson - LD D+1 season

 

Guess what kids? We've now got ourselves a pretty solid prospect pool. Let's keep piling up the assets!!

Misa at 150, holy crap. I'm still in shock. Want pace and entries, watch him. I've said Catton-lite, and I firmly believe that he was the closest C to Catton in this draft. He plays very similarly.

Let's get Michael Misa next year and have a Hughes-like fam celebration. lol

Nice picks throughout. Colour me impressed.

The guys I bolded are outstanding value.

I kind of knew that we were scouting Muskegon pretty heavily, so Gridin wasn't a huge surprise. I thought we might trade up from 41 to maybe 35ish for him, but it didn't matter when we took Basha at 41.

What a solid draft. I was a bit down, maybe a lot, after Day 1. But I also realize that I'm probably a few sandwiches short of a picnic compared to how the Flames are able to scout. Add in, Edmonton taking O'Reilly put a knot in my panties. lol I may never forgive Briere and Philly.

One thing I didn't know about Parekh is finishing high school early and moving on to University courses. That's a lot of perspective. That's advanced maturity.

 

 

ya it was why I thought the Flames could have taken O'Reilly at 28 because if what you said about him was the case, it takes only one other team to agree with you. Bet the Pilers scouts read this board and said Conundrum said this about that guy. We gotta take him. I went and read up on him after you said it then there were all the news talking about him during their run, so felt it was a good one to reach for. Oilers/pilers paid a big sum for him 

[travel_dude]

8 minutes ago, robrob74 said:

 

ya it was why I thought the Flames could have taken O'Reilly at 28 because if what you said about him was the case, it takes only one other team to agree with you. Bet the Pilers scouts read this board and said Conundrum said this about that guy. We gotta take him. I went and read up on him after you said it then there were all the news talking about him during their run, so felt it was a good one to reach for. Oilers/pilers paid a big sum for him 

 

Look at the last few forwards EDM has drafted first round or early 2nd.

Bougault

Holloway

Lavoie

 

None are what I would call slam dunks.  Holloway closest to being a NHL player but substandard numbers compare to his draft class like Mercer.

 

So maybe EDM got a good one or they read rankings and believe he is the right one.  Maybe we missed out.  

[conundrumed]

36 minutes ago, robrob74 said:

 

ya it was why I thought the Flames could have taken O'Reilly at 28 because if what you said about him was the case, it takes only one other team to agree with you. Bet the Pilers scouts read this board and said Conundrum said this about that guy. We gotta take him. I went and read up on him after you said it then there were all the news talking about him during their run, so felt it was a good one to reach for. Oilers/pilers paid a big sum for him 

Oof. Outted as an Oilers secret agent. lol

[robrob74]

1 minute ago, conundrumed said:

Oof. Outted as an Oilers secret agent. lol

was there a handle on here before called SecretAgentMoo?

[travel_dude]

13 minutes ago, robrob74 said:

was there a handle on here before called SecretAgentMoo?

 

Remember ConnorFutureGM?

I think that was CMD before he was drafted.

He was a huge troll.

[robrob74]

3 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

Remember ConnorFutureGM?

I think that was CMD before he was drafted.

He was a huge troll.

Still is!

lol.

[The_People1]

8 hours ago, jjgallow said:

 

I give this the thumbs up for what it's worth (lol).   You would be shocked to know that I went on a long rant here 2 months ago about how central scouting totally bungled Russian goalie rankings.  I don't know why, or what the motivation was, but it is abundantly clear that they totally messed it up for 2024.   

 

Some had him ranked #1.   He was a sleeper but not That much of a sleeper.  I am quite sure there were 10 teams waiting to take him in the draft.   I think Conroy has an unwritten rule to take 1 goalie in every draft (previous GMs would take 1 every 2 drafts).  He's doubled down on them.    And he's caught onto the Russian trend (along with anyone who's watched the Stanley cup finals for last decade).   So we can assume he ranked the top Russian goalies, and said "let's get the best one, even if it costs us a little extra".

 

Zarubin would be that.

 

A stats guy like myself would pick him out of a haystack.  then need a scout to qualify it.   A number of Conroy's picks this year looked to be stats influenced.   Take that as good or bad, but I am extremely pleased.

 

 

https://www.toutsurlehockey.com/tslh-espoirs/kirill-zarubin-mhls-hidden-gem-for-the-2024-nhl-draft/

 

 

 

 

Thanks.  Sounds like he was able to go stealth by playing on a bad team.  GAA near 4.0 but the sv% was stellar.  Then goes to a better team and started winning.

 

Hope the Flames found a gem here.

[The_People1]

5 hours ago, conundrumed said:

Let's get Michael Misa next year and have a Hughes-like fam celebration. lol

Nice picks throughout. Colour me impressed.

 

We invited Parekh's brother to camp to foreshadow taking Zayne.  And so, Michael Misa next year...