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A history of the 208th overall pick, the Flames’ seventh-round selection in the 2025 NHL Draft
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski/USA Today Sports
Ryley Delaney
Jun 26, 2025, 12:30 EDTUpdated: Jun 25, 2025, 00:42 EDT
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It’s rare, but seventh-round picks sometimes make an impact on National Hockey League teams.
This is the final article looking at the history of the Calgary Flames draft pick. Their pick in the seventh round is the 208th overall selection, which has a few more impactful players than you could imagine.
We’ll look at the two players the Flames have picked 208th overall, as well as notable players from across the league.
Let’s dig in!

Flames select Bill Sedergren in 1987

Neither player the Flames selected 208th overall has made the National Hockey League… yet. In the case of Bill Sedergren, the Flames’ pick in the 1987 draft, he’ll never play in the NHL as his playing days are long over.
Sedergren attended Union College, an NCAA D-III school. In 1987-88, he scored three goals and 21 points in 26 games. The defenceman didn’t play in 1988-89, but returned and scored four goals and 18 points in 27 games the following season. His last season of hockey was in 1990-91, where he scored four goals and 15 points in 22 games.
The South Hadley native never turned professional and retired after the 1990-91 season.

Flames select Axel Hurtig in 2023

Two drafts ago, the Flames selected left-shot defenceman Axel Hurtig from Sweden’s Rögle BK. After three seasons with their u20 team, as well as seven games with their main club, Hurtig came to North America and was drafted by the Calgary Hitmen in the import draft.
Last season, Hurtig scored five goals and 16 points in 55 games, with a goal and three points in 11 post-season games. The Swede also represented his nation at the 2025 World Juniors, picking up an assist in seven games as Team Sweden fell short in the Bronze Medal Game.
Hurtig is heading into his 20-year-old season, with all signs pointing to him remaining with the Hitmen as a “two-spotter” – taking one of their three overage (20-year-old) spots and one of their three import spots.

Notable players selected 208th overall

Before deciding to write the history of this pick as well as the 176th pick, I didn’t think there was enough to write a full-fledged article just because of how late these picks were. I was wrong.
The player with the most games after being selected 208th overall is also a former Flame, as Andrew Ference played 903 games and scored 43 goals and 225 points. He spent four seasons with the Flames, scoring 10 goals and 63 points in 224 games, helping them make the Stanley Cup Final in 2004. The left-shot defenceman eventually won the Cup with the Bruins in 2011, before joining the Edmonton Oilers and becoming their captain.
Ference wasn’t the only player selected 208th to win a Stanley Cup. Ondřej Palát was selected in the 2011 draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning and won back-to-back Stanley Cups with them in 2020 and 2021. Palát has played the second-most games (748), scoring the most goals (162) and most points (477). He’s one of a few players still actively playing, and one of two who played in the National Hockey League in 2024-25.
In 1992, the Bruins selected Mattias Timander, who went on to play 419 games with 13 goals and 70 points. The left-shot defenceman played for the Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Islanders, and Philadelphia Flyers, returning to his native Sweden during the 2004-05 lockout and never returning to North America. He finished his career after the 2012-13 season, another season the NHL had a lockout.
David Volek was a productive scorer, potting 25 goals and 59 points in his rookie season. He spent all six seasons with the New York Islanders, scoring 95 goals and 249 points in 396 games, but was forced to retire as a 27-year-old due to a herniated disc. He scored a big goal in the 1993 post-season to knock off the defending Pittsburgh Penguins. What could’ve been.
Three other players have reached the 100 NHL game plateau: Mike Tomlak (1983), Jaroslav Svoboda (1998), and Dallas Eakins (1985). The latter has gone on to have a lengthy coaching career, coaching Ference on the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Oilers.
Other players selected 208th who’ve gone on to play at least one NHL game are Radoslav Hecl (2002), Brandon Reid (2000), Bob Babcock (1986), Václav Pletka (1999), Philip Kemp (2017), and Kirill Kudryavtsev (2022). 
Kemp and Kudrayastev are two of 11 players selected 208th who played in 2024-25. Others are Tommi Kivisto (2009), Palát (2011), Miroslav Svoboda (2015), Jordan Kooy (2018), Vadim Zherenko (2019), Ronan Seely (2020), Hank Kempf (2021), Hurtig (2023), and Fisher Scott (2024). Miroslav Svoboda is not related to Jaroslav Svoboda.
Here are some other fun facts about the 208th pick: Martin Brodeur’s son, Anthony, was selected by the Devils with the pick in 2013. He never played professionally, most recently playing for the University of Ottawa in 2019-20. Algonquin College is still better.
The first ever 208th overall pick is Tom Gastle, from Peterborough, Ontario. HockeyDB has the Rangers picking Tom Castle, an English player born 16 years after Gastle was drafted. It’d be rare for an English-born player to be drafted, as there have only been three players from England who’ve been drafted.
Kazakhstan is another country that doesn’t regularly have a lot of prospects drafted. However, one of the 18 players drafted was selected 208th overall, as a 1995 draftee, Andrei Samokhvalov, hails from Oskemen.
Five players have been drafted from the Northwest Territories, with only one (Geoff Sanderson) playing more than 10 games. Seeley was born in Yellowknife and could be the sixth player from the territory to play in the NHL.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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