Friends, throughout the history of the Calgary Flames franchise, they’ve done a great deal of their team-building at the draft. And that’s not just through drafting and developing fine young hockey players, it’s also via trades made during the weekend of the entry draft.

Sometimes, the Flames made amazing trades at the draft. Sometimes, though, the trades weren’t quite what was hoped for.

Before we get to the great trades, let’s delve into the four less-than-great ones in chronological order.

In 1989, the Flames were excellent, finishing first overall and winning the Stanley Cup. In 1990, the Flames weren’t quite as good, finishing second overall and losing to Los Angeles in the first round of the playoffs. As part of his perpetual tinkering with his team, general manager Cliff Fletcher opted to swap out veteran blueliner (and captain) Brad McCrimmon to Detroit for a draft pick. (Fletcher also fired head coach Terry Crisp after the playoff disappointment, which included two overtime losses in key games.)

The Flames’ blueline had begun getting younger and a bit less stout defensively with Rob Ramage’s departure following the 1989 playoffs… and this continued that trend, putting pressure on the drafting and development group to restock the NHL roster quickly.

The next day, the Flames traded 33-year-old winger Joe Mullen to Pittsburgh for another second-round pick. Mullen’s production had dipped from 51 goals and 110 points in 1988-89 to a still pretty good 36 goals and 69 points in 1989-90, but the drop in scoring seemed to spook Flames management and led to Mullen’s departure.

But coming on the heels of the retirement of Lanny McDonald and Hakan Loob’s return to Sweden after the 1989 Cup win, it leaned out the Flames’ forward group of established, reliable scorers. (And then Mullen, even with injuries, remained a fairly productive scorer for another seven seasons.)

First and foremost: Butler and Byron were pretty good players for the Flames, we’re not including them in this list to disparage them.

That said: the Flames were hell-bent on keeping their competitive window open with Jarome Iginla. (Bearing in mind that at this point they had missed the playoffs for two consecutive seasons and not won a round since 2004, but we do get the impulse.) So in order to clear the cap space to re-sign Alex Tanguay before he hit free agency on July 1, they needed to move Regehr and Kotalik, and they had to use a second-rounder as a sweetener.

The “window” did not remain open and the Flames ended up trading Iginla a season and a half later (and Tanguay a little after that). Oh, and Regehr went on to win a well-deserved Stanley Cup in Los Angeles after a brief stint in Buffalo.

Again: Hamonic? Really solid defenceman. At the time, he had term on his deal, so the Flames were trying to solidify their blueline with a cost-controlled, defensively-stout shutdown defender. The idea was solid.

The price? Even locked into a pretty solid contract, a first rounder and two second-rounders for a veteran player who did not move the needle much offensively was perhaps a bit of an overpay. Perhaps. It just feels very odd to pay almost as much for Hamonic as they did for Dougie Hamilton, who was younger and carried more untapped upside.

Take $20 off your first Vivid Seats order of $200+ using promo code FLAMESNATION (new customers only, $200 USD minimum before taxes & fees)