CALGARY – Harvey the Hound walked into the Calgary Flames’ draft lottery watch party with a pair of streamers ready to launch.
He walked out with his head hung low, as the Toronto Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks spoiled the Flames’ chances of moving up in this summer’s NHL Draft.
The generational player the Flames hoped would land in their laps via the shockingly entertaining ball draw, might have to wait a year.
Instead, the fifth-ranked Leafs, and ninth-ranked Sharks, will get to add studs Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg to rosters that already include first overall picks Auston Matthews and Macklin Celebrini.
Meanwhile, the Flames fell from fourth to sixth, where Craig Conroy insists his club is still going to draft a young star.
“We’re gonna get a good player,” insisted the Flames GM.
“You always want to win anything we do, but now we just know six is a spot, and we’ll really dig in.”
The good news is the Flames have been in this spot before and plucked Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk sixth.
The bad news is they also took Rico Fata there in 1998.
Conroy said he feels like his list is pretty locked from one to six, and his club will simply get the highest-ranked player left after the other five teams pick.
Last year, the team went heavy on adding centres to fill an organizational hole, but this year’s sixth pick won’t be selected that way.
“No, we’re going to go best player at six,” said Conroy.
“So if it’s forward, defence, goalie, whatever, we’re going to pick the best one.”
Good luck finding consensus on who that will be.
While most Flames fans seem jacked about the possibility of grabbing the top-ranked centre, Caleb Malhotra, from the Brantford Bulldogs, most draft experts believe he’ll be gone before the Flames pick.
With a pile of defencemen slotted by many to be top-ten material, it sure seems likely the Flames will add to their budding young blue line early in the June 26-27 draft hosted by Buffalo.
Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala slots Prince George defenceman Carson Carels (six-foot-two, 202 pounds) at six, while colleague Sam Cosentino slots Jukurit’s defenceman Alberts Smits (six-foot-three, 205-pound Latvian) there.
ESPN has forward Nikita Klepov with Saginaw in the sixth spot
Defencemen Chase Reid (Sault Ste Marie) and the University of North Dakota’s Keaton Verhoeff both seem like popular picks in the top 5, although McKeen’s Hockey sees the six-foot-three, 212-pound Verhoeff at No. 6.
“I think, in my mind, I kind of see how this draft is probably going to go, so I know what’s coming,” said Conroy, a longtime scout who has seen all of his top seven picks play live this year.
“I think there’s a group of maybe seven or eight players that probably most teams like, and we’ll see what they pick, and then we’ll be able to make our decision at six, which way to go.”
The Flames also have Vegas’ first-round pick as part of a team-record 11 selections, which includes four fourth-rounders.
The Flames are positioned to make a big splash at the draft, but it just might not come as early as fans hoped.
Zach Whitecloud (Canada) and Matt Coronato (U.S.) are the latest Flames to agree to play in the upcoming World Championship in Switzerland.
The Flames signed 2025 second-round pick Theo Stockselius to an entry-level contract Monday, following a season in which the six-foot-three, 197-pound centre finished with a flurry, leading his Djurgardens Jr club to a league championship. Although the Hitmen have his North American rights, he will likely remain in Sweden next season.