Draft Hits And Misses - Calgary Flames

Over the next couple of weeks I will look at each team in the NHL, and see how they have performed at the NHL draft. There are basically 3 really important areas to determine the level of success at one of the most inexact sciences in the game – selecting 17 and 18 year old kids and projecting what they will be like over the next 10 or 15 years.

Those three areas are: 1) Success in the first round; 2) Success in the second round and 3) The number of drafted players playing on a team’s roster. I limit it to the first 2 rounds because that is where a majority of the impact players come from, and also where mistakes in judgement are magnified. Players that come after the second round for the most part are fortunate picks and if they work out it is a bonus. Henrik Zetterberg, for example, was a 7th round pick, and although you could claim Detroit was skilled in unearthing a prospect at that point in the draft, if they had known he was going to be as good as he turned out to be, they wouldn’t have waited that long. There is as much good luck as good management for a player like that, and that is factored in in the 3rd area of success.

Now we turn our attention to the Calgary Flames, and their track record since the year 2000.

FIRST ROUND SUCCESS:

The Flames have selected 15 players in the first round, with 5 of them making some impact in the NHL, for a success rate of 33%.

SECOND ROUND SUCCESS:

In the second round, 2 of the 10 players they selected have gone on to play a significant amount of time, resulting in a 20% success rate.

HOME-DRAFTED TALENT:

The Flames had 10 Calgray-drafted players play games with them this past season.

SUCCESSES – Dion Phaneuf is a standout as the best pick for the Flames, with Sean Monahan already showing signs of being a star after just 1 season.

FAILURES – The Flames draft list is dotted with failures, even dating back before 2000. Adding to the names like Daniel Tkaczuk in 1997 you can add Brent Krahn (9th overall in 2000), Chris Chucko (24th in 2004), Matt Pelech (2005), Leland Irving (2006) and Greg Nemisz (2008).

STEALS – David Moss (220th in 2001) is really the only standout player that the Flames unearthed in the really late rounds.