Calgary Flames draft day: the 2024 NHL Draft, Round 1 (5pm MT, SN)
By Ryan Pike
2 days agoThis article is brought to you by bet365.
The waiting is just about over, and draft weekend is finally upon us! The 2024 NHL Draft begins on Friday night in scenic Las Vegas, Nevada, emanating from Sphere, with Round 1 unfolding on Friday and the remaining rounds taking place on Saturday morning.
And suffice it to say, it’ll be a very important weekend for the Calgary Flames. Heck, it’s arguably one of their most important draft weekends in decades.
The first 32 selections begin to tick off the board just after 5 p.m. MT and you can catch the excitement on Sportsnet.
Here’s what you need to know for Round 1!
Calgary’s picks
The Flames have nine picks over the next two days as general manager Craig Conroy oversees his second draft in the big chair:
- 9th overall (1st round)
- 28th overall (1st round) – from Vancouver (Elias Lindholm trade)
- 41st overall (2nd round)
- 62nd overall (2nd round) – from Dallas (Chris Tanev trade)
- 74th overall (3rd round)
- 84th overall (3rd round) – from Vegas (Noah Hanifin trade)
- 106th overall (4th round)
- 107th overall (4th round) – from Vancouver via New Jersey (Elias Lindholm trade)
- 170th overall (6th round)
The Flames don’t have a fifth-round pick, as they traded it to Chicago for Ryan Carpenter prior to the 2022 trade deadline. (The Flames also acquired a fifth-round pick from Vancouver in the Nikita Zadorov trade, then traded it to San Jose for Nikita Okhotiuk prior to the 2024 trade deadline.)
The Flames don’t have a seventh-round pick, as they traded it to Seattle as part of a trade for Calle Jarnkrok prior to the 2022 trade deadline.
If the Flames don’t trade any picks, it’ll be…
- The first draft since 2013 where they’ve made multiple first-round picks
- The first draft since 2016 where they’ve made nine picks overall
- The first draft since 1997 when they’ve made six (or more) picks in the first 100 selections
There’s already been two shuffles in the draft order with San Jose trading up to 11th overall and Boston reacquiring their own pick, 25th overall, in the Linus Ullmark trade. Conroy noted in Thursday’s visit with the media that he “generally” has an idea of the prices necessary to move up. Later during his discussion, he referred to the possibility specifically about moving up from 28th to potentially get a player that they value.
But don’t necessarily expect the Flames to get too active with moving out their picks.
“We’ve got the draft capital this year,” said Conroy. “We’ve had years where we haven’t made many picks, so we’d like to restock and keep as many picks as we can.”
Calgary’s contracts
The Flames have 17 players that can reasonably be projected as NHL players based on being either on one-way NHL contracts or being Connor Zary (on a two-way but no longer waiver exempt):
- F Jonathan Huberdeau – $10.5 million
- F Nazem Kadri – $7 million
- D MacKenzie Weegar – $6.25 million
- F Andrei Kuzmenko – $5.5 million
- F Blake Coleman – $4.9 million
- D Rasmus Andersson – $4.55 million
- F Mikael Backlund – $4.5 million
- F Yegor Sharangovich – $3.1 million
- G Dan Vladar – $2.2 million
- F Kevin Rooney – $1.3 million
- D Daniil Miromanov – $1.25 million
- D Kevin Bahl – $1.05 million
- F Martin Pospisil – $1 million
- F Connor Zary – $863,333
- F Walker Duehr – $825,000
- D Joel Hanley – $787,500
- D Brayden Pachal – $775,000
These deals cover one goalie, six defencemen and 10 forwards. Between these deals and Jacob Markstrom’s retained salary, the Flames have $58.225 million in cap commitments for 2024-25. The most prominent pending free agents that require new deals are Dustin Wolf (restricted) and Oliver Kylington (unrestricted). The Flames are, right now, under the $65 million cap floor, so expect them to be doing some work over the next while to, y’know, fix that.
The Flames have some holes to fill on their roster, some cap space with which to fill it, and oodles of draft capital over the next three drafts with which to potentially make moves. Conroy was asked on Thursday by The Athletic’s Julian McKenzie about the possibility of moving a pick to obtain a young player.
“We would be open to it, for sure,’ said Conroy. “If there was opportunities to move a second, a late first, to get a player that you feel like is worth that, we would. Not many teams right now, that doesn’t seem like it’s a real possibility. But you know, you have those conversations. Would you be willing to do this or that? Most teams are ‘probably not right now Craig.’ But you just have to circle back and stay on them and see if there’s something you can do at some point.”
This and that
The Flames have been pretty active lately! They traded Jacob Markstrom to New Jersey, and completed the Andrew Mangiapane trade with Washington on Thursday following Conroy’s chat with the media. Ironically, Conroy noted to us that the difference between this year’s draft and last year’s draft was “not a lot of trade talks in this one, not like last year.” Last year he had seven pending 2024 unrestricted free agents to deal with in addition to his first draft, while this year the Flames had Mangiapane and fellow pending 2025 UFAs Andrei Kuzmenko and Yegor Sharangovich to pay attention to.
Per Conroy, the Flames’ main draft list has just over 50 players on it, but the area scouts also have their own lists which pay come into play – you typically see teams veer from the main list later on in the draft.
In terms of how the draft will unfold? “Maybe after one, it’s anybody’s guess,” noted Conroy.
“This is a unique draft,” said Conroy. “Even if you look at all the defencemen that are out there early on, they’re all different. Everybody’s got different… And you know, we said ‘just put them in order,’ you know, but if you have a need, this might be the year to go with the need. You say ‘I need this type of player,’ you might go off your list a little bit to get a player that you feel like you need, because there’s so many different types of players, especially on defence.”
Hockey Hall of Famer/Flames special advisor/Tij Iginla’s dad Jarome Iginla is with the club in Las Vegas and has been attending scouting meetings, though he won’t be at the table for Friday’s picks. Conroy acknowledged that he understands the type of pressure that the younger Iginla would be under if he became a Flame – he also noted that he’d face pressure everywhere – and maintained what he’s said for weeks: it’d be exciting, but they’re treating Tij like any other potential draft prospect this year.
“It’s a name, just like yours or mine, we’re all just one name,” said Conroy. “And if he’s the right name at the time, and if he’s there, then we’ll take him.”
Per Conroy, the Flames will be selecting the best player available at ninth overall.
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