Digging into Flames drafting and development improvements
By Ryan Pike
5 years agoIn a salary cap world, a key to long-term organizational success has been finding ways to backfill your big-league roster with good, cheap, young players. While the Calgary Flames aren’t in an ideal situation quite yet, they’ve given themselves some inexpensive depth by way of their improved drafting and development.
The organization, at a glance
The Flames have 46 players currently under active contracts. Seventeen of those players were originally Flames draft picks – including 10 on the active roster. That doesn’t include another seven players that were recruited into the organization as amateurs and another three that were European pros that were brought to North America by the club.
The 17 drafted players that remain with the organization represent the 2007 (Mikael Backlund), 2008 (TJ Brodie), 2011 (Johnny Gaudreau), 2012 (Mark Jankowski and Jon Gillies), 2013 (Sean Monahan and Morgan Klimchuk), 2014 (Sam Bennett and Mason McDonald), 2015 (Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington and Andrew Mangiapane), 2016 (Matthew Tkachuk, Dillon Dube, Tyler Parsons and Matthew Phillips) and 2017 (Juuso Valimaki) draft classes.
It’s easy to point to the changes that Brad Treliving’s made as general manager for the team’s drafting success. But the general drafting philosophy has largely built upon the approach that predecessor Jay Feaster and former assistant GM John Weisbrod put in: define what you value in players, do your homework, build your list, and stick to your list when you’re on the draft floor.
The big changes Treliving has made, aside from adding scouts in a few key areas, have been on the development side. Since he joined the organization, Treliving has added Brian McGrattan in player assistance, Ray Edwards in player development, Matt Brown in mental performance, and added a second full-time assistant coach for their American Hockey League club.
For a snapshot of how the organization has done with drafting and development, here’s a look at the scouts Treliving has had to work with and the players they’ve selected broken down by region.
The United States
Picks:
- D Adam Fox [2016; 3rd round; USHL]
Rights traded to Carolina - F Mitchell Mattson [2016; 5th round; high school]
Freshman at Michigan State University (NCAA) - F Martin Pospisil [2018; 4th round; USHL]
Playing for Sioux City Musketeers (USHL) - F Demetrios Koumontzis [2018; 4th round; high school]
Freshman at Arizona State University (NCAA) - F Emilio Pettersen [2018; 6th round; USHL]
Freshman at Denver University (NCAA)
(During the Treliving regime, the Flames also signed undrafted free agents Ryan Lomberg, Spencer Foo and Josh Healey.)
Scouts: Mike Addesa (p/t)(-2014), Frank Anzalone (-2017), Jim Cummins, Pierre Lamoureux (p/t) (-2015; now Fargo, USHL), Eric Soltys (p/t) (2014-), Billy Powers (2017-), Luke Strand (2016-17; now Sioux City, USHL), Mike Craig (2017-)
Resources: Treliving inherited two full-time scouts and a couple part-timers. Now it’s two full-time scouts and one part-timer. It’s also useful to have two former scouts as coaches in the USHL.
Performance: The Flames have drafted five Americans and have had six players play in the NCAA system (including Brandon Hickey). So far nobody from that group has signed with the Flames, though only Fox and Hickey have progressed enough to really merit signing. At the very least, though, they became tradeable assets. Ironically, the players that the team didn’t draft but ended up signing have fared better; Lomberg and Foo have played NHL games.
The West
Picks:
- D Brandon Hickey [2014; 3rd round; AJHL]
Went to the NCAA; rights traded to Arizona - F Austin Carroll [2014; 7th round; WHL];
Signed entry-level deal, not qualified after initial contract - F Pavel Karnaukhov [2015; 5th round; WHL]
Returned to Russia, now playing in the KHL - F Dillon Dube [2016; 2nd round; WHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Flames - F Matthew Phillips [2016; 6th round; WHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Stockton Heat - D Juuso Valimaki [2017; 1st round; WHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Flames - F Zach Fischer [2017; 5th round; WHL]
Signed AHL deal, playing with the Stockton Heat - F Milos Roman [2018; 4th round; WHL]
Playing for the Vancouver Giants (WHL)
(During the Treliving regime, the Flames also signed Glenn Gawdin and Nick Schneider as undrafted free agents out of the WHL.)
Scouts: Brandon Benning (-2014; now with Canucks as scout), Rob Sumner, Brad McEwen (2014-17; now with Hockey Canada), Reid Jackson (2017-), Darren Kruger (2017-), Allister MacNeil (2016-)
Resources: The Flames began with a pair of WHL scouts, now they have three. McEwen is also a potential resource as part of Hockey Canada.
Performance: Aside from Karnaukhov going back to Europe a year after being drafted (and Hickey’s whole situation), the Flames have been pretty effective at drafting decent WHL players and turning them into decent pros. You would expect them to be half-decent at finding players from this region given that they own a WHL team, though.
Quebec
Picks:
- G Mason McDonald [2014; 2nd round; QMJHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Kansas City Mavericks (ECHL) - F D’Artagnan Joly [2017; 6th round; QMJHL]
Playing with Baie-Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL) - F Dmirtry Zavgorodniy [2018; 7th round; QMJHL]
Playing with Rimouski Oceanic (QMJHL)
Scouts: Bob MacMillan (-2018), Ritchie Thibeau (-2017; now with Moncton, QMJHL), Corey Krakower (2015-17), Patrick Lachance (2017-)
Resources: The Flames began Treliving’s regime with two QMJHL scouts, they still have that many.
Performance: It’s hard to judge, as they’ve only drafted three Quebec prospects and the two they haven’t signed yet they still have time to decide on. That said, Joly and Zavgorodniy are at least good QMJHL players right now.
Ontario
Picks:
- F Sam Bennett [2014; 1st round; OHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Flames - F Hunter Smith [2014; 2nd round; OHL]
Signed entry-level deal, not qualified after initial contract - D Rasmus Andersson [2015; 2nd round; OHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Flames - F Andrew Mangiapane [2015; 6th round; OHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Stockton Heat - D Riley Bruce [2015; 7th round; OHL]
Not offered a contract, NHL rights lapsed - F Matthew Tkachuk [2016; 1st round; OHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Flames - G Tyler Parsons [2016; 2nd round; OHL]
Signed entry-level deal, playing with the Stockton Heat - D Stepan Falkovsky [2016; 7th round; OHL]
Not tendered a bonafide offer, NHL rights lapsed, signed with the Los Angeles Kings - F Adam Ruzicka [2017; 4th round; OHL]
Playing with the Sarnia Sting (OHL)
Scouts: Fred Parker, Tom Webster (-2014, retired), Terry Doran (2014-)
Resources: The Flames began with two OHL scouts and still have that many.
Performance: The Flames have signed all but two OHL draftees thus far – Ruzicka has a year of runway left before they have to make a decision – and four of their OHL-drafted players have played NHL games so far.
Europe
Picks:
- D Adam Ollas-Mattsson [2014; 6th round; Sweden]
Signed to AHL deal, playing with the Stockton Heat - D Oliver Kylington [2015; 2nd round; Sweden]
Signed to entry-level deal, playing with the Stockton Heat - F Linus Lindstrom [2016; 4th round; Sweden]
Playing with Skelleftea AIK (SHL) - F Eetu Tuulola [2016; 6th round; Finland]
Playing with HPK (SM-Liiga) - F Filip Sveningsson [2017; 7th round; Sweden]
Playing with IK Oskarshamn (HockeyAllsvenskan)
Scouts: Ari Haanpaa, Bobbie Hagelin, Petri Skriko (2016-17; now coaches in Denmark), Robert Neuhauser (2017-)
Resources: The Flames began with two European scouts and are now up to three.
Performance: They’ve drafted two European players that have come over to North America and three that they still have rights to that haven’t come over yet.
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