Free washer | Will CH want to improve its draft rank?

After a strong start to the season, the Calgary Flames suffered an eighth loss in their last eleven games on Tuesday evening, but a third after regulation time.

The fate of the Flames obviously arouses the interest of the management of the Canadian, as we recall, since Montreal holds their first round choice for having hosted Sean Monahan and his contract for a season two years ago.

If the draft took place today, CH would draft 5^e for the third consecutive year, 19^e with Flames pick, 37^e with his second round pick and 43^e with that of the Penguins, obtained for having welcomed another player with an overly expensive contract, Jeff Petry.

With this array of choices, Kent Hughes and his team can afford to be creative again. Last year, Montreal went from 26^e au 21^e rank by offering a late second round pick, at 57^e rank, to the Los Angeles Kings in order to draft center Michael Hage. He did well in his first season at the University of Michigan with 18 points, including 10 goals, in 15 games.

The San Jose Sharks did the same last summer. They gave up a second round pick, at 42^e rank, to move from 14^e au 11^e rank in order to get their hands on defender Sam Dickinson. This young man has been making a splash since the start of the season in London, in the Western Junior League, with an astronomical production of 46 points in just 26 games. The Sabers drafted center Konsta Helenius at 14^e rank and a strong defensive defender, Adam Kleber, at 42^e.

Using its 19^e et 37^e choice, the Canadian could go somewhere between 11 and 13^e rank next summer, provided of course that we find the right exchange partner, according to an NHL manager who was kind enough to send us his analysis grid.

Let’s have fun seeing if the game would be worth it based on 15 vintages, between 2006 and 2020.

2006

• 12^e Bryan Little, centre : 843 matches, 217 goals, 521 points
• 19^e Mark Mitera, defender: no NHL games
• 37^e Yuri Alexandrov, defender: no NHL games

2007

• 12^e Ryan McDonagh, defenseman: 957 games, 76 goals, 398 points
• 19^e Logan MacMillan, forward: no NHL games
• 37^e Stefan Legein: no NHL games

2008

• 12^e Tyler Myers : 1025 games, 94 goals, 378 points, defenseman top 4
• 19^e Luca Sbisa: 549 games, 20 goals, 113 points, support defenseman
• 37^e Cody Goloubef: 160 games, 3 goals, 25 points

2009

• 12^e Calvin de Haan: 658 games, 24 goals, 147 points, support defenseman
• 19^e Chris Kreider: 843 games, 314 goals, 563 points, first-line winger
• 37^e Mat Clark, defenseman: nine NHL games

2010

• 12^e Cam Fowler: 994 games, 96 goals, 457 points, offensive defenseman
• 19^e Nick Bjugstad: 716 games, 153 goals, 319 points, support center
• 37^e Justin Faulk, defenseman: 933 games, 127 goals, 435 points, offensive defenseman

2011

• 12^e Ryan Murphy : 175 matchs, 8 buts, 43 points
• 19^e Oscar Klefbom: 378 games, 34 goals, 156 points, offensive defenseman, repeated injuries
• 37^e Boone Jenner: 715 games, 192 goals, 364 points, forward top 6

2012

• 12^e Mikhail Grigorenko : 249 matchs, 26 buts, 76 points
• 19^e Andrei Vasilevskiy: 501 games, 307-152-31, elite goaltender
• 37^e Pontus Aberg: 132 games, 17 goals, 44 points

2013

• 12^e Max Domi: 684 games, 131 goals, 425 points, mid-training center
• 19^e Kerby Rychel : 43 matches dance la LNH
• 37^e Valentin Zykov: 55 games in the NHL

2014

• 12^e Brendan Perlini: 262 games, 50 goals, 81 points
• 19^e Tony DeAngelo: 371 games, 48 ​​goals, 210 points, controversial offensive defenseman, now in the KHL
• 37^e Alex Nedeljkovic: 155 games, 65-50-25, backup goaltender

2015

• 12^e Denis Gurianov: 298 games, 52 goals, 113 points, disappointing forward, now in the KHL
• 19^e Evgeni Svechnikov: 172 games, 20 goals, 45 points, disappointing forward, now in the KHL
• 37^e Brandon Carlo: 587 games, 29 goals, 103 points, defensive back top 4

2016

• 12^e Michael McLeod: 287 games, 29 goals, 85 points, fourth-line center, banned for sex scandal
• 19^e Kieffer Bellows : 95 matchs, 14 buts, 28 points
• 37^e Libor Hajek: 110 games, 4 goals, 12 points

2017

• 12^e Martin Necas: 393 games, 111 goals, 287 points, elite forward
• 19^e Josh Norris: 214 games, 82 goals, 143 points, number one or two center
• 37^e Marcus Davidson, centre : no NHL games

2018

• 12^e Noah Dobson: 350 games, 44 goals, 209 points, number one defenseman
• 19^e Jay O’Brien : no NHL games
• 37^e Jett Woo : no NHL games

2019

• 12^e Matt Boldy: 234 games, 88 goals, 200 points, first-line winger
• 19^e Lassi Thomson: 18 games in the NHL
• 37^e Mads Sogaard: 28 games in the NHL

2020

• 12^e Anton Lundell: 247 games, 51 goals, 133 points, mid-training center
• 19^e Braden Schneider: 237 games, 14 goals, 57 points, defensive back
• 37^e Marat Khusnutdinov: 44 games, 2 goals, 7 points

This is obviously a very unscientific exercise for discussion purposes. There are many imponderables: which team is drafted at given ranks, development with a variable curve, etc.

In seven cases, in 2006 (Little), 2007 (McDonagh), 2008 (Myers), 2013 (Domi), 2018 (Dobson), 2019 (Boldy) and 2020 (Lundell), the game would have been worth the candle.

Four times, in 2009 (Kreider v. de Haan), 2011 (Klefbom and Jenner v. Murphy), 2012 (Vasilevskiy v. Grigorenko) and 2015 (Carlo v. Gurianov), the more distant choices prevail. Four other times it’s more of a coin toss.

Conclusion ? If you really like a player, and he is placed very high on your list, the odds are still in your favor. But drafting, we repeat too often, remains a very inexact science…