Flames Draft History

Since the Panthers lookback proved to be so successful, we decided to take stock of another franchise's draft history, the Calgary Flames. General Manager Derek Loftus has been on the job since the start of the 2010 season, which means he’s about to enter his 15th draft at the helm of the Flames scouting table. As you may have noticed, the years where all the teams showed up for the draft, that table has been fairly empty. That’s because in 2014 the Panthers hired away almost all of their amateur scouts, which has worked out great for the Flames balance sheet, as they haven’t made a single pick since then. There’s rumours that they still have one or two people on staff still handing in scouting reports, though our insiders say they’ve compiled all these reports by playing EA Sports NHL games over the years. Which leads us to believe Derek has not looked at a single report over the last decade. So while it’s been quite slim, let’s take a look at their picks over the years.

1st Round (2 Picks) / 816 NHL Games (408 avg.)

When you pick Aleksander Barkov [‘13, #4], it’s hard not to call that a win. A multi time Selke winner who is one of the most dependable centres in the league. Unfortunately for the Flames, he ended up in the same province with the Oilers. Thankfully their other first round pick, Stuart Percy [‘11, #21], has not come back to haunt them….or anyone really, since he’s playing in the Czech league.

2nd Round (0 Picks) / 0 NHL Games (0 avg.)

Oh man, this is truly an impressive feat. The Flames somehow have not missed on any 2nd round pick. Teams around the league have been trying to replicate their success to no avail. Something special is going on where they have the ability to avoid any landmines.

3rd Round (0 Picks) / 0 NHL Games (0 avg.)

The 3rd round on the other hand is an absolute massacre. Not a single player worth noting! How can a team be so successful in the previous round, and yet so dreadful just picks later. Yeah we know the success rate is supposed to drop, but to 0%?!? We just don’t understand why they don’t apply the same logic they do for round 2 for round 3, surely it could work.

4th Round (0 Picks) / 0 NHL Games (0 avg.)

We’re not going to call out Derek, but it does seem suspicious that he didn’t draft a single player from outside the Calgary area in the 4th round. Has he just completely cut back on travel for the non-existent scouts? 

5th Round (2 Picks) / 0 NHL Games (0 avg.)

Viktor Crus Rydberg [‘13, #122] and Cole Ully [‘13, #123]? Sure, why not. You can’t expect to hit on all your 5th round picks.