We’ve discussed, from time to time, some systemic biases in NHL scouting and drafting that the Calgary Flames have managed to take advantage of to find some really great hockey players.

Turns out if somebody scores a ton of points in every level of hockey, maybe they can do it in the NHL, too.

Born in Saskatchewan but raised in Manitoba, Fleury was an undersized kid who developed a feisty, combative playing style to compensate for his lack of size. He came up through local minor hockey, regularly racking up tons of points and penalty minutes, before catching on with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Despite his size – and while enduring unspeakable abuse from his coach – Fleury kept improving as a player and established himself as one of the WHL’s top players.

In his second year of draft eligibility, the Flames selected Fleury late in the 1987 NHL Draft, with the thought that perhaps he could be a good player for their minor league affiliate in Salt Lake City. Well, he accomplished that, and a whole heck of a lot more.

Fleury became a full-time pro in 1988-89, starting the season with the IHL’s Salt Lake Golden Eagles. By the New Year, he had 74 points through 40 games and the NHL club was in need of a bit of energy during a mid-season lull. So the Flames opted to call Fleury up… and he never left. He finished the season with 34 points in 36 games, then provided some key depth as the Flames won the Stanley Cup.

Fleury remained with the club for another decade, and as key members of the 1980s teams moved elsewhere and the team became pretty lean, Fleury was one of the reasons to check out Calgary’s games. Whether he was scoring a goal, crashing and banging against the other team’s top players, or often both, Fleury was usually worth the price of admission. He had four 30-goal seasons, two 40-goal seasons and a 50-goal season. He never won a major league award, but he regularly received votes for the year-end all-star teams.

He served as team captain for two seasons after Joe Nieuwendyk’s move to Dallas, when the Flames really needed someone to take charge of the team. He ended up as the franchise’s all-time leader as goal and points by the time he departed the club. Like many of the team’s stars of the 1980s and 1990s, Fleury’s contract requirements grew beyond what the club could handle, and he was sent to Colorado prior to the 1999 trade deadline along with Chris Dingman in exchange for Robyn Regehr, Wade Belak, Rene Corbet and a 2001 second-round pick (used to select Jarret Stoll). Regehr went on to play over 800 games for the Flames.

If you look at the Flames’ historical list of players that have been, at various times, been their all-time leading point-scorers, there’s a lot of fairly high draft picks on that list. Tom Lysiak was drafted second overall. Eric Vail was taken 21st. Guy Chouinard was 28th. Kent Nilsson was 64th. Al MacInnis was 15th. Jarome Iginla was taken 11th by Dallas. If you add up the draft positions of those six players, you’re still 25 spots behind where Fleury was selected.

The Flames thought that maybe they could get a good IHL scorer when they selected Fleury. They ended up with one of the franchise’s all-time defining players.

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