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Flames Draft 2026: A history of the 36th overall pick
Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 14, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 14, 2026, 02:23 EDT
The Calgary Flames are set to pick back-to-back at the end of June.
Barring any trades, the Flames will have four second round picks. Along with the Vegas Golden Knights’ first rounder, the Flames are set to have three picks in the 30s, potentially three in a span of five picks.
The 35th pick has only produced four All-Stars and no Hall of Famers. What a difference a pick makes, as one 36th overall pick went on to have a Hall of Fame career, while five other players went on to play in All-Star games.
Much like the 35th overall pick, the Flames have never picked 36th overall. However, several players selected 36th overall went on to play for the Flames, something no player selected 35th overall has done.
Let’s start there, as we dive into the history of the 36th overall pick.
History of the 36th overall pick
In the 1970 draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Gerry O’Flaherty 36th overall, just the second player to be selected 36th overall. In the twilight of his career, the Pittsburgh product appeared in a game for the Atlanta Flames on Mar. 3, 1979, scoring a goal. He retired shortly after.
The other two 36th overall picks to play for the Flames happened to be teammates with the 1999-2000 Flames. Darryl Shannon was in the twilight of his career and played 27 games with the Flames that season, scoring a goal and nine points. His NHL career wrapped up following the 2000-01 season.
Jeff Shantz is the most notable 36th overall pick who played for the Flames. Over four seasons with the team, he scored 33 goals and 86 points in 256 games, playing with the team from 1988-99 until 2001-02. Santz was traded to the Colorado Avalanche for Chris Drury and Stephane Yelle, playing his final NHL season in 2002-03.
While he didn’t play for the Flames, Chris Nielsen spent his junior days with the Calgary Hitmen, winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 1998-99, before falling 7-6 in overtime in the Memorial Cup Final (where he scored twice). But what’s interesting about Nielsen is that he’s the only player born in Tanzania to play in the NHL, playing 52 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Including Tanzania, there are just 17 countries that have produced one NHL’er. One of the other ones, Taiwan, produced a Hall of Famer who happened to be selected 36th overall.
With the 36th overall pick in 1977, the Montréal Canadiens selected Rod Langway. The defenceman won back-to-back Norris Trophies in 1982-83 and 1983-84, despite scoring double-digit goals just once in his career. In 1982-83, he scored just three goals (and 32 points) in 80 games, making him a rare defensive defenceman to win the award for the best defenceman.
Langway broke into the league with the Canadiens in 1978-79, just in time to help the Original Six team win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. He never reached the top of the mountain again, but he did enough in his career to be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.
The defenceman fell just six games short of playing 1,000 games, meaning there is only one player selected 36th overall to reach the quadruple digit game mark. Drafted by the Hartford Whalers in 1990, Geoff Sanderson went on to play 1,104 games in the NHL, scoring 355 goals and 700 points. The Northwest Territories product had some good seasons, being named an All-Star twice in his career.
Another player selected 36th overall who went on to become an All-Star is Tomas Sandström, who was selected in the 1982 draft by the New York Rangers. His 983 games are the third most for any 36th overall pick, potting 394 goals and 857 points, both ranking as the most for any player picked 36th.
On top of being named an All-Star twice, Sandström won the Stanley Cup in the twilight of his career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1997. He also went to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Los Angeles Kings in 1993.
Also on that Red Wings team was Stratford native, Tim Taylor. Selected 36th by the Washington Capitals in 1988, Taylor bounced around for a few years before making his NHL debut with the Wings in 1993-94. Taylor went on to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Flames in the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals.
The only active Stanley Cup winner is Jesper Boqvist, who helped the Florida Panthers knock off the Edmonton Oilers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals. Drafted by the New Jersey Devils in 2017, Boqvist is only 27 and has become an effective bottom six scorer. Who knows, maybe he’ll find his way on the Flames in the future.
Speaking of the Oilers, they selected Jarrett Stoll 36th overall in 2002. Funnily enough, the Flames selected the forward 46th overall in 2000, but he wasn’t signed. After losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, Stoll went on to win two Stanley Cups with the Kings in 2012 and 2014.
There were three other All-Stars selected 36th overall who didn’t win the Stanley Cup. In 1984, the Québec Nordiques selected defenceman Jeff Brown 36th overall. Over 747 NHL games, he scored 154 goals and 585 points, third most for players selected 36th overall.
Nearly a decade later, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted Finnish defenceman Janne Niinimaa. Over 741 NHL games, he scored 64 goals and 319 points, being named an All-Star in 2000-01. Niinimaa never won a Stanley Cup, but he went on to win three titles in Finland and one in Sweden.
The only other All-Star is an active player, netminder Thatcher Demko. When healthy, the San Diego product has proved to be one of the better goalies in the league. That included a Vezina Trophy calibre season in 2023-24, when he posted a .918 save percentage and 2.45 goals against average, finishing second in voting. Two years before that, Demko finished seventh in Vezina voting, with the netminder heading to the All-Star game in both those seasons.
Demko is one of 16 active players, and just one of five players drafted 36th overall who played in the NHL in 2025-26. The oldest of which is 2010 draftee Alexander Petrovic, who played 54 games with the Dallas Stars. Sam Colangelo, drafted 36th in 2020, is the lone player drafted in the spot in 2020 who has made his NHL debut.
Boqvist has his name on the Stanley Cup and played for the Florida Panthers this season. There is a chance another 36th overall pick gets his name on the Cup, as Pyotr Kochetkov’s Carolina Hurricanes are currently in the Stanley Cup Finals. The netminder was drafted in 2019.
As for the other active 36th overall draftees, three played their 2025-26 season in Europe. Those players are Jared McIsaac (2018), Zachary Fucale (2013), and Corey Trivino (2008). Additionally, Adam Clendening (2011) played his 2025-26 season with the Kontinental Hockey League’s Shanghai Dragons, a Chinese-based team.
Many of the 36th overall picks drafted in 2020 and beyond spent their 2020 season in the AHL, including Colangelo, who played 49 games with the San Diego Gulls. Shai Buium (2021), Artyom Duda (2022), Kasper Halttunen (2023), and Charlie Elick (2024) all played at least one AHL game.
Most of Elick’s season was spent in the Western Hockey League, as was the same case for Blake Fiddler. There were also a few veterans that played in the lower leagues in North America. Pascal Laberge (2016) played for the Thetford Assurancia of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey in 2025-26, while Chris Brown (2009) returned to North America to play two games for the ECHL’s Tahoe Knight Monsters after nine seasons in Europe.
Of the 57 players selected 36th overall, 21 of them have gone on to play 100 or more games. In total, 37 players selected 36th overall went on to play a game in the NHL, with 31 of those players playing double-digit games.
The success rate is unsurprisingly similar to the 35th overall pick. With that pick, 37 players played an NHL game, 32 played double-digit games, and 20 players played at least 100 games. That said, the 35th overall pick failed to produce a Hall of Famer, so that’s cool.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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