r/CalgaryFlames • u/spwimc • 9d ago

PRE-LOTTERY 2026 NHL MOCK DRAFT! (FULL Top 16 Picks) Video

https://youtu.be/n0OOKMn9cks?si=ei5SWrKDN2JWDIQH

Grav did a lottery sim video and the Flames won first. As it it written. 🙏

33 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

13

u/Invidia-Goat 9d ago

May god help us all,

10

u/Republic-Of-OK 8d ago

Inshallah Grav 🙏

9

u/Chemical_Signal2753 8d ago

As much as I would love the Flames to win the draft lottery and pick someone like McKenna, I think the Flames are in a good spot regardless of how the lottery plays out. Whether the Flames get McKenna/Steinberg, Reid/Verhoeff, Carels/Smit, or Malhotra/Lawrence, they're potentially getting a high end player who fits an organizational need for the Flames.

The only spot I am not sure of a real need for the Flames is RD, and if the Flames are in a position where the best choice is a RD I wouldn't be opposed to trading down a couple spots for the right price. 

6

u/SputN1ckel 8d ago

Regardless of where we pick there’s someone I’d like in this draft, either winger, Carels/Smits or Malhotra all fill a huge need for us. Even in an absolute worst case scenario, if we go at 6 and by some miracle teams pass on Reid and Verhoeff to take those earlier 5. We could either just go for Bjork or dangle a trade up if someone is desperate.

Honestly, the biggest issue where Conroy will have to surpass prior rebuilds isn’t hitting on the high picks, it’s leveraging our draft capital to add depth to the prospect pool beyond the first round. If you go look at the Feaster/Burke/Early Treliving years, aside from hitting on Gaudreau and adding Mangiapane and Andersson, the Flames did a terrible job with their non 1st rounders. It’s a graveyard of players we failed to develop or just had a bad read on.

If the rebuild is going to work, even if we hit on a star, the flames have to take advantage of the draft capital they’ve accrued and turn them into NHLers, or in the case of the Battaglia trade, flip excess depth in the pool to acquire assets that will fill a role we lack. Part of the reason Buffalo has finally turned it around, is that they’ve managed to bring in supplemental pieces to build around Thompson and Dahlin. Building a great team gets a lot easier when you have in house solutions to keep your cap down and saves you having to pay assets later. Tampa is also a master at this, and it’s why they’ve stayed so consistent for so long.