The Calgary Flames added to their scouting staff earlier this week, announcing the hiring of amateur scouts Mike Coflin and Lauri Tukonen.

Coflin joins the Flames after spending a lot of time with the Portland Winterhawks in a few different scouting roles. Originally joining the Winterhawks back in 2012-13, he’s served as their director of scouting and assistant (to the) general manager since 2018-19. He’s also worked in coaching and scouting roles in Italy, USports and the BCHL.

Tukonen joins the Flames after spending the last couple seasons in various roles with his local club, Jää-Ahmat, including club chairman. It’s his first formal scouting role from what we can tell, but Tukonen had a lengthy pro playing career. Originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in 2004, he played three seasons in North America (including five NHL games) but otherwise played a ton in Finland. His last year playing pro hockey was 2019-20, when he played just five games with TPS in the Liiga.

Based on who’s listed on the Flames’ hockey operations directory on their website, here’s roughly how their scouting coverage looks for the coming season:

In North America, they have director Tod Button (based in Ontario) and assistant directors Fred Parker (based in Ontario) and Rob Sumner (who’s in the west). Their area scouts are Allister MacNeil (west), Darren Kruger (west), Coflin (west), Patrick Lachance (Quebec) and Terry Doran (Ontario). Coflin’s addition is probably a replacement for Jason Taylor, who disappeared from the website staff listing over the summer (and we’re presuming departed from the organization).

In the United States, the Flames have Jim Cummins, Mike Craig, Trevor Hanson and Pierre-Paul Lamoureux. American scouting is sort of a weird overlap of the NCAA, USHL, high school and NAHL scouting typically. Our recollections are that Cummins is based in Michigan, Craig in the midwest, Lamoureux in North Dakota, and Hanson in New England.

In Europe, the Flames have Czechia-based Robert Neuhauser, Sweden-based David Akerblom, Russia-based Denis Grebeshkov and Finland-based Tukonen. Tukonen is essentially a replacement for Ari Hakanpaa, their previous Finnish scout.

The group is rounded out by Peter Loubardias, longtime broadcaster, fan of the game and general repository of hockey information, who’s the club’s reserve list scout.

Continuing a period where the Flames have, to be blunt, a truckload of picks, the Flames seem to be maintaining continuity and depth of coverage in their scouting group. Several of their key scouts – among them Button, Parker, Sumner and Doran – have been with the club for a decade or more, while several more are creeping up on double digits. A lot of their most experienced scouts are their North American ones, typically in Ontario and the West, which makes sense considering how often the Flames have drafted from those regions.

For a team that is prioritizing drafting and development as they work through their re(verb) period and needs to hit on future picks to follow up on what many analysts are calling an excellent 2024 draft crop, maintaining continuity makes a lot of sense. We’ll see if it results in another banner crop (or two) of prospects in the upcoming drafts.