Comparing Brad Treliving’s drafts to those before him

The Calgary Flames signed a pair of drafted players last week, inking a sixth round pick (Emilio Pettersen) and a seventh round pick (Dustin Wolf). Based on recent evidence, it feels like the Flames have been more productive with their draft picks under Brad Treliving than in the years prior.

But does the data bear that out?

Bolded players signed ELCs with the Flames. Underlined players became NHL regulars with the Flames. Italic players were traded.

Let’s review!

Treliving’s first draft, he came in after 95% of the work was completed – he was on-board I believe for the combine meetings and the final draft prep, but likely he deferred to Tod Button, Craig Conroy and Brian Burke as they had been there all season.

Sam Bennett (1st), Mason McDonald (2nd), Hunter Smith (2nd) and Austin Carroll (7th) were signed, though only Bennett was retained after his ELC expired. Brandon Hickey (3rd) was traded to Arizona in the Mike Smith swap. Adam Ollas Mattsson (6th) signed an AHL deal but didn’t earn an NHL contract.

The first draft Treliving was entirely around for, 2015 is quietly one of the more productive weekends of work in club history.

Rasmus Andersson (2nd), Oliver Kylington (2nd) and Andrew Mangiapane (6th) were signed. Andersson and Mangiapane have signed deals past their ELCs, and all three are arguably NHL regulars at this point. (I’m willing to concede that Kylington is borderline.) Pavel Karnaukhov (5th) went back to Russia and never signed – technically the Flames still have his rights – while Riley Bruce (7th) wasn’t offered a contract. Three NHL players on five picks with the earliest pick being a round and a half into the weekend? That’s tidy work.

The Flames signed Matthew Tkachuk (1st), Tyler Parsons (2nd), Dillon Dube (2nd), Eetu Tuulola (6th) and Matthew Phillips (6th). Tkachuk and Dube are NHL regulars. Phillips is knocking on the door for NHL work. Tuulola had a productive first pro season in North America. Parsons is still young and has potential after a nice season in the ECHL.

Adam Fox (3rd) was traded to Carolina in the Elias Lindholm/Noah Hanifin deal. Stepan Falkovsky (7th) wasn’t offered a contract. Linus Lindstrom (4th) and Mitchell Mattson (5th are still pending. But again, the Flames got two NHL regulars, plus Phillips is close, and Fox likely wasn’t going to sign but was leveraged for two other NHL regulars.

So far, the Flames have signed a pair to ELCs: Juuso Valimaki (1st) and Adam Ruzicka (4th).

Zach Fischer (5th) signed an AHL deal but didn’t earn an NHL contract. D’Artagnan Joly (6th) wasn’t offered an ELC. Filip Sveningsson (7th) hasn’t signed an ELC yet but still has a year of eligibility left.

The Flames didn’t pick for the first three rounds, but early returns are promising on 2018. A trio signed ELCs: Martin Pospisil (4th), Emilio Pettersen (6th) and Dmitry Zavgorodniy (7th).

Demtrious Koumontzis (4th) and Milos Roman (4th) haven’t signed yet, but Koumontzis has two more years of eligibility left to do so.

Not even a year after the 2019 draft, it’s impressive that Jakob Pelletier (1st) and Dustin Wolf (7th) have already signed. It’s also somewhat funny that they’ve inked their first and last picks.

Ilya Nikolayev (3rd), Lucas Feuk (4th) and Josh Nodler (5th) have all yet to sign, but have lots of time left to do so.

Six Treliving drafts have produced four NHL regulars – five if you count Kylington – and have several players in the pipeline who have the potential to do so.

Bolded players signed ELCs with the Flames. Underlined players became NHL regulars with the Flames. Italic players were traded.

Let’s compare Treliving’s six drafts with the six drafts prior to his arrival, shall we?

2008: Greg Nemisz (1st) signed but was traded, as was Mitch Wahl (2nd). Lance Bouma (3rd) and TJ Brodie (4th) both became NHL regulars, though Bouma was eventually bought out. Ryley Grantham signed an ELC but that was it. Nick Larson (4th) and Alexander Deilert (7th) didn’t sign.

2009: Tim Erixon (1st) was famously traded to the NY Rangers for a couple of 2011 picks. Ryan Howse (3rd), Joni Ortio (6th) and Gaelan Patterson (7th) signed ELCs. Ortio became a borderline NHLer but that was it. Henrik Bjorklund (4th) and Spencer Bennett (5th) never signed.

2010: Max Reinhart (3rd), John Ramage (4th), Bill Arnold (4th) and Micheal Ferland (5th) all signed ELCs, with Ferland becoming an NHL regular before a trade to Carolina. (The other three didn’t last long.) Joey Leach (4th) didn’t sign, while Patrick Holland (7th) was traded to Montreal in the Mike Cammalleri trade.

2011: Sven Baertschi (1st), Markus Granlund (2nd), Tyler Wotherspoon (2nd) and Johnny Gaudreau (4th) were all signed. Baertschi and Granlund were borderline NHL regulars but were later traded. Wotherspoon was a tweener and became a free agent. Gaudreau is a first line player. Laurent Brossoit (7th) was traded for Ladislav Smid.

2012: Mark Jankowski (1st), Patrick Sieloff (2nd), Jon Gillies (3rd), Brett Kulak (4th) and Ryan Culkin (5th) were all signed. Jankowski has become an NHL regular. Kulak was a borderline regular and was traded. Sieloff was minor league depth who was traded. Gillies is a pending UFA who probably won’t be back. Culkin was minor league depth who wasn’t re-signed. Coda Gordon (6th) and Matthew Deblouw (7th) didn’t sign.

2013: Sean Monahan (1st) signed and became an NHL regular. Emile Poirier (1st), Morgan Klimchuk (1st) and Keegan Kanzig (3rd) all signed ELCs, but all departed the organization relatively quickly. Eric Roy (5th), Tim Harrison, (6th), Rushan Rafikov (6th) and John Gilmour (7th) didn’t sign ELCs.

Six pre-Treliving drafts produced six NHL regulars.