On Tuesday evening, the Calgary Flames hoped for some luck in the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery. As they’ve become accustomed to, they received zero help from the hockey gods – or the ping pong balls – in the lottery.

They moved down two spots, dropping from fourth overall to sixth overall by way of Toronto and then San Jose leap-frogging them to receive the first and second overall picks, respectively.

Drafting at first or second overall would have given the Flames a chance at a potential game-breaking player. It’s a bit tougher to find one at fourth overall, and even tougher at sixth overall, but we don’t expect the rough lottery luck to change how the Flames approach the draft.

Since Jay Feaster became general manager back in 2011, the Flames have been a “work the list” team. Their amateur scouts spend the year scouring the hockey world and evaluating talent. Then they sit down as a group and compile their list of what players they would take in what order. The early rounds feature the Flames primarily drafting from their list, and they veer away from it on occasion – more so in the later rounds, when some unique opportunities are presented to them.

Working the list has seen the Flames select players in recent years like Matt Coronato, Sam Honzek, Aydar Suniev, Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin early on. Being willing to be flexible at times later in the draft has allowed them to jump on opportunities like Ethan Wyttenbach, Luke Misa, Arsenii Sergeev and Dustin Wolf. (And, in Feaster’s first year as GM, Johnny Gaudreau.)

Over the past decade-plus, as Feaster made way for Brad Treliving and later Craig Conroy, the Flames have added to and refined the tools they have available to aid in their amateur scouting. Their analytics tools are more robust, and built into much of their scouting and development apparatus. Their scouting team is larger. And they’ve been working each year to refine their approach, particularly given Conroy’s messaging that the best way to build a good hockey club is through the draft.

The Flames have 11 picks in the 2026 NHL Draft, including two first-rounders, four second-rounders and two third-rounders. Given where they are in their growth process, it’s a big draft for them. They’ve made 24 picks over the past three drafts and they’ve gotten some pretty good players by working their list.

We wouldn’t expect sliding back a couple spots in the first round to make them change their strategy.

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