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Dustin Wolf wasn’t the only clever seventh-round pick the Flames have made recently
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Ryan Pike
Jun 7, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 5, 2025, 23:10 EDT
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The seventh round of the NHL Draft is a wacky time. Some teams have completed all of their picks already and are headed to the airport to go back home. Some teams are trying to remember the name of that one kid they saw in a Rhode Island prep school league.
And then there’s the Calgary Flames, who have somehow managed to squeeze value out of some of their late picks.
Here’s a brief look at how the Flames have fared in recent years drafting in the 200th overall range.

Their last five drafts

Here are the last five drafts worth of first-round selections for the Flames:
Year
Pick
Player
Team
2024
—
—
—
2023
208
D Axel Hurtig
Rogle BK (J20 Nationell)
2022
219
F Cade Littler
Wenatchee (BCHL)
2021
205
G Arsenii Sergeev
Shreveport (NAHL)
2020
205
D Ilya Solovyov
Saginaw (OHL)
Notes:
  • The Flames traded their 2024 seventh-round to Seattle as part of the Calle Jarnkrok trade prior to the 2022 trade deadline.
It’s hard to Monday morning quarterback these picks, because you can understand the rationale for them.
  • Solovyov was a second-time eligible player, drafted as a 19-year-old out of the OHL. He’s played NHL games and has established himself, at the very least, as a really reliable AHL blueliner.
  • Sergeev was an impressive Russian goalie drafted out of second-tier American junior hockey, who became an impressive goalie in first-tier junior and then the NCAA. He’ll play pro hockey in 2025-26.
  • Littler was selected because of his physical traits – he’s big – but he’s moved into college hockey and showed some flashes of strong play at North Dakota as a freshman.
  • Hurtig was also selected because of his bigness, but he came over and played with the WHL’s Hitmen and impressed.
In the late rounds, you roll the dice of traits that might project to the pro level. The Flames have, at the very least, found seventh-rounders that have played pro hockey for them.

Historical hits

2019 seventh-rounder Dustin Wolf was voted a finalist for the Calder Trophy in 2024-25 and is the team’s current starting goaltender. That’s pretty good. His 71 games played with the Flames, so far, is the most of any seventh-rounder in nearly 20 years.
Prior to Wolf, 2001 seventh-rounder David Moss broke through and played over 300 games with the Flames (and over 500 games in the NHL overall).

Historical misses

Honestly, you can’t call any seventh-rounder a bust. At that point in the draft, it’s about trying to find value in different ways and the odds of any of them playing professional games – let alone NHL games – is so minute that you’re looking for things to be mad about if you get too riled up about seventh-rounders.
But c’mon, man, C.J. Severyn at 186th overall in 2007 when Justin Braun was still available?!

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