The Calgary Flames entered the trade deadline with the goal of shoring up their forward depth, and they did so with the acquisitions of Tyler Toffoli and Calle Järnkrok, but they paid dearly for the privilege in picks and prospects. The degradation of their prospect pool was an expected outcome, but that’s just the cost of doing business when you’re one of the league’s contenders.
Now, less than a half-year later, pillars of the Flames’ core at the time — Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, and in the past, Sean Monahan — are no longer part of the organization. They’ve since been replaced with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, in what was one of the greater organizational pivots pulled off by a general manager in recent history.
Still, the Flames’ only selected three players in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft and had to wait until the 59th pick to walk the stage period, and this has left their prospect pool stagnant.
With some serious late-round hits and a program in Stockton that’s been moved even closer to home, reinvented as the Calgary Wranglers, the development of already drafted and signed players will be key to increasing the value of this group, moving them into the realm. of potential contributors or even trade chips to extend future runs. A significant amount of NHL projections exist throughout their pool, essentially embodying the quantity over quality mantra like some other teams in this same series.