Flames Draft Picks... Biggest Busts, Biggest Booms since 2000

[LastWordArmy]

Welcome to Last Word’s Draft Boom and Bust series. As the 2020 NHL Entry Draft approaches, we decided to examine each team’s best and worst pick since the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The biggest boom is a player that had the best value relative to where they were selected. Meaning, no one in the first round will be considered a team’s best value pick. However, the biggest bust picks will almost always be in the first round. We will examine each player, why they were picked where they were, and what their NHL career was like. Today, we look at the Calgary Flames draft history and their biggest boom and bust since 2000.

For the Full Article... take a look at
Calgary Flames Biggest Draft Boom and Bust Since 2000

But here are some honourable mentions for Boom & Bust

T.J. Brodie

For a player who was drafted in the 4th round, T.J. Brodie has had a massive impact. For multiple seasons, Brodie has found himself on the top pair, alongside Mark Giordano. Brodie has become a key contributor and has averaged over 20 minutes per game in eight straight seasons. Brodie has rounded out his game, and become a fairly reliable player all over the ice. Even though Brodie was an excellent steal in the draft, he has not become one of the faces of the franchise like Johnny Gaudreau.

Bust
Morgan Klimchuk

The first round in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft could have been franchise-changing for the Flames. They had three picks in the first round. They selected Monahan with the 6th overall pick, and he has become one of their best players. However, the latter two picks were Emile Poirier and Morgan Klimchuk. Combined, these two played nine games in the NHL. Klimchuk only ended up playing one game in the NHL and looks likely to be a career AHL player. However, he was not picked nearly as high as our top bust.

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[Deen]

Mangiapane slowly working his way on to that boom list.

 

[FLAMESFAN]

I would say Fata/Tkaczuk were bigger busts than Bennett...

 

[Deen]

Brent Krahn, Kris Chucko, Matt Pelech, Leland Irving, Greg Nemisz, Tim Erixon, Morgan Klimchuk, and Emile Poirier all busted in the 1st round for us. The rest have been at least serviceable. That is a hell of a lot of misses in 20 years and the book is still out on Pelletier and how Valiamaki returns. I'm even being generous when it comes to the term "serviceable". Our 1st round drafting has to be up there in the worst or close to the worst range. We have been saved by small guys in later rounds.

 

[Body Checker]

Chucko was a hard one to take as Zajac was on same team and we traded down and missed out on him.

 

[Flameshomer]

Bennett is the franchise's highest ever pick and has really not amounted to anything worthy of note. I think you're fooling yourself if you're not willing to call him a bust at this point. That doesn't mean he's not serviceable, but he will never live up to expectation (likely not even ever be a consistent top 9 player...)

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Fata & Tkaczuk are the most obvious ones to me. And unfortunately Poirier and my boy Klimchuk were as well. I also had huge hopes for Dustin Boyd, I was really sad he didn’t work out.

 

[JPeeper]

Bennett is the biggest bust in franchise history. Bigger bust than Fata IMO. Factoring in draft position, the improvement in scouting, who went before and after, I think Bennett is a bigger bust. Fata was trash yes, but was a 6th overall and drafted in an era with a lot of bad players. Look at his draft class compared to 2014, we could have had Nylander, Ehlers or if we were risky Pasternak.

 

[Khrox]

Fata was also 1998 draft and this is 2000+, but still, given anything Bennett was probably a worse pick for that area than Fata. Though I will say, Bennett will likely have a longer career, and already has a better career points wise, but given his role and production, definitely not a 4th OA/top 5 pick in a draft as strong as 2014 was.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Rico Fata was a bad pick in a bad draft.

Sam Bennett has been a disappointment thus far, yet still has more points than 80% of the picks from the 98 draft.

 

[Deen]

Fata was also 1998 draft and this is 2000+, but still, given anything Bennett was probably a worse pick for that area than Fata. Though I will say, Bennett will likely have a longer career, and already has a better career points wise, but given his role and production, definitely not a 4th OA/top 5 pick in a draft as strong as 2014 was.

Could have had Pastrnak.

 

[Khrox]

Could have had Pastrnak.

Or a Dylan Larkin. Or a Nik Ehlers (who I was kind of high on, though without the benefit of hindsight, I would have likely taken Bennett over him anyways unless we traded down like 2-3 spots).

 

[FLAMESFAN]

Ya, most of us were giddy when Benny was still available.
I still have hope he'll improve and have more consistent offence.