A good NHL draft class or bad? It doesn't matter to Calgary Flames scouting staff

National Post

5 days ago

Is it a good draft? A bad draft? A deep draft?
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Tod Button doesn't concern himself with that question.
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The Calgary Flames director of amateur scouting since 2001 has seen good drafts, bad drafts and everything in between over the years.
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While the 2025 NHL Draft class may not be as highly touted as some previous years, he's convinced there are some high-end talents who are going to be on the board when the Flames make their picks.
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'The way we approach it is to make sure we're not giving ourselves an out ahead of time that it's a bad or weak or not a good draft class. Our job is to find the players,' Button explained. 'I've done this before with people, and our scouts specifically, there's Conn Smythe winners, Vezina Trophy winners, Norris Trophy winners and MVPs that have gone in the second, third and fourth rounds and even later than that.
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'It's not an excuse we're going to make and not part of our process going into meetings.'
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The Flames hold the No. 18 and No. 32 picks in the first round on Friday night and then have picks in each of the next six rounds, other than the fourth, on Saturday.
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The idea isn't just to get useful NHLers with those first two selections, either. They're aiming to hit with every pick.
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And while the consensus on this year's draft is that there probably aren't a bunch of franchise-altering generational talents, there's no doubt there are still some very good players in the draft.
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And the Flames are intent on picking a few of them, at least.
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There's reason for the scouting department to be feeling confident, too, as the early returns on the players they picked last year have been very encouraging.
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Zayne Parekh looks like a star-in-the-making while Matvei Gridin, Andrew Basha, Jacob Battaglia and Henry Mews all had great years with their junior teams.
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'I think it's been a few years where we've felt pretty confident going into the draft,' Button said. 'With all the departments, with the mental performance, with strength and conditioning, with the skating evaluations from Danielle Fujita, with the analytics and then the eyes-on scouts. We have an experienced staff.
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'It's all a process and I think we're confident and I think management is confident in our ability to put another really good draft class together.'