When will the Flames pick at the 2020 NHL Draft?

Friends, we’re not entirely sure when the 2020 NHL Draft will be. For a few reasons – namely getting something off their big to-do list – the NHL wants to get the draft done in the near future, with whispers of an early June draft transforming into chatter about teams anticipating about a month’s notice.

In the meantime, presuming that the draft is before the season or playoffs conclude, let’s chat about when the Flames will draft.

The most recent proposed draft order has been laid out like so: teams will be ranked by points percentage to account for teams having different amounts of games played. The top eight teams in each conference – the playoff teams – are drafting 16 to 31. The non-playoff teams are drafting 1 to 15.

The Flames are in a playoff spot by virtue of points percentage, but since they’re the weakest playoff team by that metric they draft 16th.

Let’s walk through their prospective picks:

The Flames are on the hook to send Chicago a third round pick (via the Erik Gustafsson trade). Given the unclear resolution to the Milan Lucic/James Neal trade with Edmonton – the league has some ideas, but they won’t have to impose a solution until it’s entirely certain that the draft takes place before the end of the season – the assumption is the Flames will send their own third rounder (78th overall) to Chicago.

The Flames’ own fourth round pick, 109th overall, was previously sent to Los Angeles for Oscar Fantenberg at the 2019 trad deadline.

So there you have it: the Flames will likely have six picks total and three picks in the first 100 selections.