By Zackery Robert
Next up in this draft day history series, and first Canadian team, is the Calgary Flames. The Calgary Flames had their first draft back in 1980 and have picked up some gems throughout their time. Even though some of their best players in franchise history were not drafted by them, the Flames still have a lot to show for their draft history.
To start off we will go back to the 1981 draft where the Flames were sitting 15th on the board at the draft. This was the first of two franchise defining picks in this draft, where first we saw the Flames select Al MacInnis. MacInnis was an all time great defensemen and went down as such. He played from 1981-1994 for the Flames and captured a Stanley cup with the club and took home the Conn Smythe trophy during that run as well. He had a 103 point season with the Flames and he totalled 803 games and 822 points good for a career points per game with the flames of 1.02.
Moving on from player to goalie we have from the same 1981 draft, and it took until the third round for him to be drafted 56th overall, Mike Vernon. Vernon was the Flames first star goalie, Vernon played in parts of 13 seasons for the Flames between 1982-1994 and again in 2000-2002 and tallied 262 wins for the club and backstopped them to the Stanley cup win back in 1988-1989. The Flames honoured Vernon by retiring his number 30 on February 6th 2007.
Next up is from the 1987 draft where the Flames scored huge in the sixth round pick 166 when they chose Theoren Fleury. Fleury is the archetype for small immensely skilled forwards, he could shoot, pass, skate with speed, and score points. He had two 100 point seasons in a Flames uniform and a 50 goal season to go with that too. Fleury played in parts of 11 seasons with the Flames between 1988-1999, scoring 830 points in 791 games, good for a career ppg with the Flames of 1.05.
Now that we’ve talked about the good of Calgary drafting let’s talk about the bad. First up we will start with Niklas Sundblad, he was drafted 19th in 1991 and played only two games with Calgary before leaving the league with zero career points. This draft has immense talent on the top end of the first round but there were still some longevity players down around the 19th mark and Calgary missed them all on this pick. Seeing what could have been with some more consistent NHLers makes this pick end up on this list.
Coming up next is from the 1997 draft where Calgary held the sixth overall pick and used it to select centre Daniel Tkaczuk. Daniel played only 19 games in his career, all with the flames, finishing with 11 points in those games. Being sixth overall carries with it some high expectations, expectations that Tkaczuk did not come close to meeting. With a player like Marian Hosea coming off the board six picks later at number 12, seeing what he accomplished in his career makes this pick that much harder to swallow.
The final questionable pick for the Flames would come only a year after the 1997 draft in 1998 with again the sixth overall pick. Calgary chose winger Rico Fata, in his 27 games with the Flames Fata scored only one assist and was claimed off waivers from Calgary to the New York Rangers only three years after being drafted sixth overall. Whilst this draft wasn’t one to boast incredible deep talent, there were better options for the Flames at six so this selection ends up on this list.
Currently in 2023 the Flames find themselves just outside the playoffs and if this were to be the case at the end of the season they would likely land at pick 15-16 in the first round. The Flames do not have an incredibly deep prospect pool, with Matt Coronato and Connor Zary being their top two projects. Going into the 2023 draft the Flames have five picks, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 7th. If they were to land at the 15-16 pick mark they could look at drafting a defensemen as their prospect pool is in some serious need of blue liners. At midway through the first round some potential defence they could draft are Swedish defensemen Tom Willander and Canadian defensemen Lukas Dragicevic. Both bring great offensive upside to their team and at midway through the round these would be two great options for the Calgary Flames to choose from.
For more information on the 2023 NHL Draft class be sure to pick up your copy of the comprehensive DraftPro 2023 NHL Draft Guide.