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The Flames have reliably found effective NHL players with recent first-round picks
Photo credit: © Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Pals, there was a period of time where the Calgary Flames had issues with their first-round draft picks. There were chunks of time in the 1990s and 2000s where their first-rounders didn’t often become NHL regulars, or even play games.
Well, those days are but a bad memory, as the Flames have been consistently productive in the early parts of the NHL Draft. Heck, five recent first-rounders played chunks of the 2025-26 season with the big club. With two first-round picks at their disposal this June, let’s take a look back at the Flames’ past first rounds.
Their last five drafts
Here are the last five drafts worth of first-round selections for the Flames:
Year | Pick | Player | Team |
2025 | 32 | Arizona State (NCAA) | |
2025 | 18 | Victoria (WHL) | |
2024 | 28 | Muskegon (USHL) | |
2024 | 9 | Saginaw (OHL) | |
2023 | 16 | Vancouver (WHL) | |
2022 | — | — | — |
2021 | 24 | Kamloops (WHL) |
Notes:
- The Flames acquired Florida’s 2025 first-round pick as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade in 2022 (and used it to select Cullen Potter).
- The Flames acquired New Jersey’s 2025 first-round pick as part of the Jacob Markstrom trade in 2024 (and used it to select Cole Reschny).
- They traded their 2024 first-round pick (16th) to Montreal as part of the Sean Monahan trade in 2022.
- The Flames acquired Vancouver’s 2024 first-round pick as part of the Elias Lindholm trade in 2024 (and used it to select Matvei Gridin).
- They traded their 2021 first-round pick (19th) to the NY Rangers, then traded the Rangers’ first-round pick (22nd) to Washington and received their pick (24th).
The Flames have had multiple firsts in each of their past two drafts, and have multiples in this year’s and next year’s drafts, too.
They’ve been pretty effective in recent first rounds. 2020 pick Matt Coronato is a good NHLer. 2021 pick Connor Zary might not have a clear role right now, but he’s a reliable NHL player. Samuel Honzek (2023), Zayne Parekh (2024) and Matvei Gridin (2024) all seemed to make progress carving out NHL niches in 2025-26.
The Flames haven’t gone totally off the board in the first round, with the majority of their recent picks reflecting the scouting consensus, more or less. But they’ve also done a great job making smart picks and their “reaches” have been moves like Gridin and Potter, making bets based on perceived upside. So far, that approach has worked well.
Historical hits
Seven Flames first-round picks ended up playing over 1,000 NHL regular season games, a list that includes Al MacInnis, Gary Roberts, Mikael Backlund, Derek Morris, Brad Marsh, Dion Phaneuf and Cory Stillman.
Another four first-rounders played over 700 games, including Tom Lysiak, Sean Monahan, Dan Quinn and Sam Bennett.
Historical misses
Four first-rounders never played a single NHL game: George Pelawa (who unfortunately passed away), Chris Biotti, Bryan Deasley and Jesper Mattsson.
Another 10 first-rounders never reached 50 NHL games: Vic Mercredi, Niklas Sundblad, Daniel Tkaczuk, Brent Krahn, Kris Chucko, Matt Pelech, Leland Irving, Matt Pelech, Morgan Klimchuk and Emile Poirier.
So… some poor results for the Flames with several first round picks.
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