July 31 in 31: Calgary Flames

Draft Review: 

I can’t imagine what it was like for scouts who diligently put in deep analysis all year to wonder if Calgary was going to trade back into the top three rounds of the draft. Their 2018 first and second round pick were used to acquire Travis Hamonic at the draft the year previous. GM Brad Treliving has been quite aggressive with draft day trades and he once again made a huge splash sending Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland, and the rights to Adam Fox for Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. Calgary decided to stay put with most of their picks, only making a 4th round swap with Montreal to grab another pick this year. They decided to mostly take gambles on small players with speed and skill.

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First Round Pick(12): Traded to NYI for Travis Hamonic – They selected D Noah Dobson (Memorial Cup Champion)

Second Round Pick(43): Traded to NYI for Travis Hamonic – They selected RW Ruslan Iskhakov (Tiny, talented Russian scorer, coming to play in the NCAA next season)

Third Round Pick (74): Traded to Arizona to acquire G Mike Smith – Arizona traded it to Chicago, who selected RW Niklas Nordgren (Tiny, talented Finnish scoring winger)

All 3 of those players have first-round talent and should be considered for fantasy drafts depending on your league categories. They be good. 

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NOW THE FUN BEGINS…. FINALLY

Fourth Round Picks:

(105) C – Martin Pospisil – He is the definition of a multi-cat player. Reports are that he causes and embraces mischief with reckless intent. It’s not often you see a top-line scorer gather 253 penalty minutes. Calgary will hope to reign in his attitude and make him one that resembles their own player Matthew Tkachuk. With 37 points in 49 games, one has to wonder what he can do when he isn’t consistently asked to leave the ice. He’s headed to St. Lawrence U next season. There is no rush on this player from a fantasy stand point. He is a power winger

(108) LW – Demetrios Koumontzis – Got this pick in the deal sending Jiri Hudler to Florida. Offensive intentioned winger. Everything about this kid screams long-term project. He played for a dominant high school program and racked up a ton of 5on5 points. Often the team would win 7-1, 8-2 with their biggest win in a 20-0 beatdown. DK had 3 points in that win. It’s such a strange stat. He’s going to a program at Arizona St and I wouldn’t expect any eye popping numbers right away. 

(122) C – Milos Roman – Finally, a selection that Calgary fans might have seen play once or twice. Milos Roman was projected to be a late 2nd or 3rd rd pick and the Flames traded a 2019 4th rd pick in return to Montreal. Milos plays a strong two-way game and does have good speed. The most impressive quality is his hands in tight situations, whether that’s along the boards, or in front of the net. His playmaking skills are a lot better than his goal scoring skills. He does not possess any elite level qualities but certainly can see his game grow in all areas. He suffered an ankle injury which derailed him for a bit. In 3-4 years he could be that AHL top C who is making a strong case for a full time NHL job. 

Fifth Round pick (136): Traded to Arizona for Michael Stone. This pick transferred when Stone re-signed with the Flames. Arizona traded it to NJ. NJ selected G – Akira Schmid (Big Swiss Goalie. Was selected by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the 2018 CHL Import draft)

(167) Sixth Round Pick: C – Mathias Emilio Pettersen – I’m not sure you’ll find as much hype or hurt as any other prospect in this draft. Highly touted and anticipated player from Norway finally gets drafted into the NHL. Personally, I started tweeting about him and instantly got a flood of Euro traffic. He is loved and supported anddddd reportedly grew up a Calgary Flames fan. He does not have elite speed but creates by being smart, elusive, and deceptive with his attack. He has stick skills to burn and vision to match. If you are looking for a super late fantasy add, Pettersen might be your guy. Boom or bust prospect. He will be taking his skills to Denver in the NCAA. 

(198) Seventh Round Pick: LW – Dmitry Zavgorodniy – Another small skilled forward that Calgary was willing to take a chance on. Undersized offensive skilled forward (5-9) who isn’t afraid to take the puck in and out of tough areas. He can get pushed around a little bit and Rimouski used him at times in the slot on the PP and can get a shot off in a hurry. He could do a better job of using open ice effectively and he will continue to fight against all the issues smaller players fight against. He plays on the same team as top prospect Alexis Lafreniere so he will not be a sleeper prospect from here on out. There will be tons of eyes on his development whether that is a good or bad thing. I’ll try my best to give consistent updates if he takes off as he has a chance of putting up great numbers. Boom or bust prospect. 

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DEVELOPMENT CAMP – July 5th-8th 2018

Thursday – Fitness testing – 7:30 AM to 1:00 PM – WinSport Canada

Friday – Group A on-ice session – 9:00 AM to 10:15 AM, Group B on-ice session – 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM – WinSport Canada

Saturday – Group B on-ice session – 9:00 AM to 10:15 AM, Group A on-ice session – 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM – WinSport Canada

Sunday – Scrimmage – 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM – WinSport Canada

It’s open to the public to come watch the on-ice training.

41 players – 19 invites –

D mostly from WHL (Bogdan Zhilyakov an interesting Russian playing exception)

F mostly from somewhere in the States

Notes:

This will be Filip Sveningsson’s first on-ice camp. He missed last years. He had a good development year all things considered. 

David Jankowski is certainly related to his older brother Mark. 

It’ll be a good look at many players who might/probably will be turning pro for Stockton including, Yasin Ehliz, Dillon Dube, Glenn Gawdin, Matthew Phillips, Juuso Valimaki, and Zach Fischer, 

I tweeted about G prospect invite Matt Galajda and his Hobey Baker finalist season. Flames have enough goalies currently and I’m sure their draft plan was not to use a pick on an older, college netminder but…… he is interesting. 

Special Note: If you add up all the players jersey numbers you get 2869 which means absolutely nothing. I just wanted to add them up. 

Calgary’s needs going into 2018-19 were this: 

1. Top-6 RW     – (signed James Neal, traded for Elias Lindholm)
2. Scoring depth in the bottom-6      – (signed C/RW Derek Ryan and C/RW Austin Czarnik, Frolik moves to 3rd line with Neal signing)
3. More RH shooters to take draws    – (Ryan, Czarnik, Lindholm)
4. Add Grit (this one is dumb)    –   (They traded away Ferland, signed D –  Dalton Prout to a one-way deal. Rumored to have wanted Reaves)
5. Survey the backup goalie market    –    Appearing to stick with either Rittich/Gillies. Whoever wins job out of camp.
6. Draft/acquire more C depth –  Signed a few AHL dudes (Alan Quine, Tyler Graovac) and drafted a few C dudes. Since Sam Bennett, CGY hasn’t drafted many C players who were projected to stay at C once they reach the NHL. They did use 3 of the 5 picks on potential C in 2018.

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Questions I have for prospects:

Is Jankowski the 4th line C now?

Does Mangiapane even have a job to win? 

Rasmus Andersson is ready to play, but will they make room for him?

Can Jon Gillies be an effective consistent back-up option?

Did Spencer Foo get screwed out of a job?

No matter how he plays, will Morgan Klimchuk even get an NHL game this year? 

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Thanks for following along! This might all be new to you, or you might have learned nothing. 

You can find me on Twitter singing about Dougie Hamilton and yelling at clouds. 

@dathockeydoe

Joel Henderson