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Are the Flames setting up to make franchise draft history?
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Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Paige Humphrey
Mar 12, 2026, 15:30 EDTUpdated: Mar 12, 2026, 11:49 EDT
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As we look forward to June and the upcoming 2026 NHL Draft, Calgary Flames fans have a lot to anticipate. As the Flames enter into a rebuild, this season’s draft might be their chance to expedite this seemingly unending rebuild.
The importance of this year’s draft cannot be embellished for Calgary. Following many seasons of roster changes and playoff shortcomings, it has become clear that the team has begun to focus their efforts on building a new team using young talent. High, first-round draft picks are one of the pillars of a successful rebuild. For the Flames, snagging a top pick could accelerate their path back to becoming a playoff team. 
The team has the opportunity to make franchise history this draft season by clinching their highest draft seed ever. They currently have a 57.9% chance of obtaining a top three pick in the lottery, which would overcome their previous record of picking fourth overall with Sam Bennett in 2014.  
Following Mar. 11’s games, the Flames sit second-last in the league, so they would draft between first and fourth, depending on the Draft Lottery results.
The NHL Draft Lottery determines the order of the first 16 draft picks between the teams that do not make the playoffs. Teams with worse records have higher odds of moving higher in the lottery, but the system is set up to allow movement (with teams being able to move up a maximum of 10 spots), meaning teams can rise or fall depending on results. For the Flames, their current standing gives them solid odds at a top pick, but the flexibility of the lottery means that a record-breaking pick is not guaranteed.
This chance to make history is yet to be set in stone, due to the chance that a team below the Flames could move above them, which would drop them to fourth overall. But with how tightly-packed the cluster of teams behind Vancouver are in the lottery race, the Flames could slide down a few spots and have a chance for the lottery to shift them as low as sixth overall. That would match with the franchise’s second highest in history with Cory Stillman in 1992, Daniel Tkaczuk in 1997, Rico Fata in 1998, Sean Monahan in 2013 and Matthew Tkachuk in 2016. 
The top three anticipated prospects are Gavin McKenna from Penn State, Ivar Stenberg from Frölunda HC and Keaton Verhoeff from the University of North Dakota. Number six could bring Alberts Smits, an 18-year-old offensive defenceman from Latvia. 
Even if the Flames do not receive their record making pick, falling to even sixth place overall is not anything to criticize.
Whether Calgary secures a historic, top-three pick, or land slightly lower in the order, they have an opportunity to add a young athlete who could help rebuild the foundation of the Flames organization. For a team in the middle of a rebuild, this lottery may prove to be one of the most important moments of this season.
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