With the Calgary Flames owning a mid first-round selection in an extremely weak draft class, they should look at trading the pick for immediate help.
The Calgary Flames promising 2016-17 season ended in a blink of an eye, as the Anaheim Ducks swept them with ease in the opening round of the playoffs. If there’s any consolation prize, it’s that their first round selection will be somewhere between 16th and 20th.
On second thought, it isn’t much of a consolation prize. The 2017 NHL Draft figures to be one of the most disappointing in recent years, as TSN’s Bob McKenzie broke down in September:
"While some of the scouts surveyed by TSN do not discount Patrick evolving into that role, the consensus view is Patrick is projected more as a second-line NHL centre and doesn’t have the same “wow” factor as McDavid, Eichel and Matthews.“He’s going to be a good, maybe very good, NHL player,” one scout said, “but he isn’t a dynamic player. His skating isn’t bad but he’s not dynamic like those others [McDavid, Eichel and Matthews].”More from Flame for ThoughtUpdates from Conroy: UFAs, main camp, captaincy, goaltending, prospectsFantasy Hockey: Potential Calgary Flames sleeper picksFlames captaincy updates and candidate rankingsCamp Notes: Previewing Calgary Flames Prospects at the Young Stars ClassicCould Flames goalie Dan Vladar be a trade option for the Avalanche?"
So why should the Flames believe that they’ll find an NHL-ready player in a draft that is strongly deprived of possible franchise players?
Furthermore, this team had 12 double-digit goal scorers in 2016-17. Their defence is locked and loaded with the likes of Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton and T.J. Brodie, too.
Speaking of Hamilton, the Flames acquired the franchise defenceman in a trade with the Boston Bruins two years ago. The price? the 15th-overall pick at the 2015 NHL Draft plus two second-round selections. That’s worked out well for the Flames.
The 2017 NHL Draft may be disappointing this year, but plenty of rebuilding teams would love to load up on first round picks anyway.
The Arizona Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche come to mind as teams that need to load up on as many draft selections as possible.
Though the Flames aren’t in desperate need of another scoring forward or a top-four defenceman, either one would be more useful now and in the future than whoever they’d select with their first round draft choice.
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Colorado, for example could be willing to package a veteran defenceman like Erik Johnson for Calgary’s first-round pick. Perhaps Detroit would throw in a speedy scorer like Gustav Nyquist or Tomas Tatar, too.
Hey, the Flames could also package the pick with the Pittsburgh Penguins to acquire Marc-Andre Fleury? Wouldn’t that be something.
This is merely speculation, and there’s been zero indication that Calgary has looked at trading away their first round pick. But general manager Brad Treliving should try to bait another team into overpaying for the selection.
The Flames are in great position. Their core players are under the age of 25, and the likes of Sam Bennett, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan should only get better with time. But Calgary can also afford to be aggressive and go all-in this offseason.
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At the end of the day, the Flames will have plenty of options with their first round draft choice. They could simply just draft a new player, elect to trade up, trade down or trade it away for multiple selections or a roster player. But the best option for Calgary would be to trade it away for a roster player that can help them win now.