FlamesNation Draft Board

 

 

The first round commences this evening and in anticipation I asked each writer here at FN to put together their own "draft board" or ranking of players they would like to see the team pick with the 13th overall choice (assuming nothing changes in the interim). Without further ado, here’s how things shake out:

1. Mark McNeill: A physically mature right shooting center that could slide to the wing if need be is pretty much right in the sweet spot for Calgary. Unless the issues are severe, I always look at motivational questions about 18 year olds with a bit of a jaundiced eye, since, you know, they’re 18. If that’s the main beef people have with McNeill, he should be OK.

 

1A. Mark Scheifele: Another center with potentially good physical tools and likely a smidge more skill than McNeill. The two of them are pretty close in the eyes of most observers, with Scheifele having a small edge in the rankings. He’s more finesse than power at this age, but he’ll have a year or two at least before he tangles with men. I’d be fine with either guy

 

3. Sven Bartschi: Skilled winger that’s a bit small, and he’s been a 5’9" power player in the Dub. That won’t fly in the bigs, so he might have to re-invent himself somewhat to find an effective role as a pro. Nice enough player, though, and his compete level is good. He’s a notch below the first two guys just based on stature, because the skill levels are pretty analogous.

 

4. J.T. Miller: Power center that’s already fairly mature physically, but his skill level looks a bit below the top three. He still seems fairly solid with all that said, and his downside might not fall past third line forward, which isn’t optimal for the 13th pick, but it’s that sort of draft. I’d likely be about as content with Armia or a few other guys as Miller, to be honest.

 

5. Jameson Oleksiak: If the Flames are going to take a defender, which I wouldn’t necessarily advocate, they might as well take a player that could be a top two guy based on his physical gifts. The fact that he survived in the NCAA as teenager is a good sign, and since his skating seems at least acceptable for a big defender, there might be something there. If his top level is more Hal Gill than Tyler Myers, c’est la vie. Duncan Siemens would be OK as a defence pick as well, but I saw just enough of him this year on the tube to wonder what the fuss was about.

Mark Scheifele: Not too many overagers on a bad Barrie team, and he still put up 22-53-75 as a 17-year-old. He also led Canada in scoring at the U18s a while back, and if he’s around, I’d hope Calgary would jump on him. Big boy, too.

 

Pat’s thinking was explained in this post earlier.

 

Some interesting names. As I mentioned on Flamesnation radio yesterday, things open up a great deal after the top-tier of talent in this draft, so narrowing down the choices even at 13 was a difficult task. If we score each choice above according to his FN ranking, we get this consensus board:

 

I assigned points in a "reverse order" (ie: first ranked gets five points, second gets four, etc) in order to get the consensus list. Unsurprisingly, Mark McNeill comes out on top, although Bartschi and Scheifele aren’t far behind. If the Flames indeed end up with two first rounders in the teens today, the "sceond tier" headed up by Grimaldi et al. would become the list for the second pick I think. Feel free to vote for who you think the Flames will take in the poll at right. Of course, if a high-ranked guy like Zibanejad or Murphy falls to Calgary, all bets are off.

Make sure to join us tonight for the FN live chat. We’ll get things going around 4:30pm MST.