It’s four months later than usual, but 216 prospective National Hockey League players will inch towards their life-long dreams over the next couple days at the 2020 NHL Draft. This year’s entry draft is taking place virtually rather than live in Montreal, but it’s one of the most exciting two days in hockey as 31 teams plan for their future.
The first round begins at 5 p.m. MT and you can check it out live on Sportsnet’s national feed and on Sportsnet 960 The Fan.
Picks
The Flames definitely have six picks in this years event:
- 1st round, 19th overall
- 2nd round, 50th overall
- 4th round, 96th overall
- 5th round, 143rd overall
- 6th round, 174th overall
- 7th round, 205th overall
The Flames owe a third round pick to Chicago as part of the Erik Gustafsson trade back in February. Edmonton owes Calgary a third round pick in either 2020 or 2021, but it seems probable that the Oilers will hold onto their pick this year given they’re already missing their second and fourth round picks via trades. Unless Edmonton gives Calgary their 2020 third, the Flames won’t have a third rounder this year.
The Flames sent their fourth round pick to Los Angeles last year as part of the Oscar Fantenberg trade. They received San Jose’s fourth round pick from Buffalo in the Michael Frolik trade – it had previously gone from San Jose to Montreal, and Montreal to Buffalo.
Contracts
The Flames have 14 players under contract for 2020-21 who are basically locks to be on the NHL roster:
- F Matthew Tkachuk – $7 million
- F Johnny Gaudreau – $6.75 million
- D Mark Giordano – $6.75 million
- F Sean Monahan – $6.375 million
- F Mikael Backlund – $5.35 million
- F Milan Lucic – $5.25 million
- D Noah Hanifin – $4.95 million
- F Elias Lindholm – $4.85 million
- D Rasmus Andersson – $4.55 million
- F Derek Ryan – $3.125 million
- G David Rittich – $2.75 million
- F Sam Bennett – $2.55 million
- D Juuso Valimaki – $894,166
- F Dillon Dube – $778,333
With a flat cap, it seems likely the Flames will probably try to stay at 22 roster spots. If that’s the case and they go with two goalies, seven defensemen and 13 forwards, that means they have open spots for a goalie, three defensemen and four forwards to fill.
Beyond the players who are signed, the Flames have seven pending restricted free agents and 15 pending unrestricted free agents.
Their pending RFAs are Glenn Gawdin, Mark Jankowski, Oliver Kylington, Andrew Mangiapane, Andrew Nielsen, Tyler Parsons and Nick Schneider. Their pending UFAs are TJ Brodie, Austin Czarnik, Derek Forbort, Byron Froese, Jon Gillies, Erik Gustafsson, Travis Hamonic, Ryan Lomberg, Alan Quine, Tobias Rieder, Zac Rinaldo, Buddy Robinson, Michael Stone, Cam Talbot and Rinat Valiev.
Cap space
The cap ceiling for 2020-21 – and for awhile – is $81.5 million. From the 14 players we noted above, the Flames have $61.9 million committed. Additionally, they owe $1.5 million from Troy Brouwer’s buyout and $1,166,667 from Michael Stone’s buyout. So that means $64.6 million is committed overall.
That leaves $16.9 million available to fill the aforementioned eight open roster spots: a goalie, three defensemen and four forwards.
But all this could change if the Flames make a trade (or two).
