{"id":554994,"date":"2026-04-18T03:46:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T03:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554994\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T03:46:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T03:46:49","slug":"heres-what-calgary-flames-gm-craig-conroy-said-about-the-upcoming-draft-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554994\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s what Calgary Flames GM Craig Conroy said about the upcoming draft | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Calgary Flames\u2019 2025-26 season coming to a close, the fan base is now turning their collective sights to the upcoming draft.<\/p>\n

The Flames finished 29th in NHL standings this season, giving them a 9.5 per cent shot at landing the first-overall pick<\/a>. Many in Calgary have been praying for that outcome since the season first began, as it would give GM Craig Conroy and his staff the opportunity to, more likely than not, select Gavin McKenna.<\/p>\n

\"nhl-draft-lottery\"<\/p>\n

Tankathon<\/p>\n

With that said, there\u2019s also the possibility the Flames drop down as low as sixth overall. Though that would seem like a major disappointment to some, Conroy has a much different outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe draft lottery is an exciting time,\u201d Conroy said. \u201cEverybody wants the first overall pick. Everybody in that draft lottery wants it. Just like we want to make the playoffs, we want to win every night, we want to win the draft lottery. That\u2019s the way we\u2019re built. We\u2019re going to get a very good player [picks] one through six.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been out scouting. I\u2019m very excited about the top six players, because I know we\u2019re going to get one of those. I don\u2019t know who they\u2019ll be because you don\u2019t know who the other teams like, but if we get one of the top six players in that draft I\u2019m going to be very happy, and I think the people here are going to be very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the draft itself that\u2019s exciting for the organization and its fan base, either. Thanks to some tidy work from Conroy<\/a>, the Flames have eight picks in the first three rounds of this year\u2019s draft. While never a guarantee, it\u2019s possible one or more of those selections could be traded.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it\u2019s hard to say if we\u2019re going to make all the picks,\u201d Conroy explained. \u201cRight now, today we\u2019re going to make all the picks, but as we get to the draft, can we move up? Is there an opportunity to make a trade for a player that we feel is someone that can help us now and in the future? We\u2019re going to look at all those options, for sure. But right now there\u2019s not all those names out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, while the odds of the Flames trading the first of their two first-round picks may not be high, Conroy wasn\u2019t willing to rule anything out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to force it \u2026 whatever pick we are, 1-6, we\u2019re not giving that up. I say that, but if the right player was there, ya we would, but that would be for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

The excitement in Conroy\u2019s voice was clear throughout, and if you\u2019ve been paying attention to this team as of late, you can certainly understand why.<\/p>\n

On top of all their draft pick capital, they also boast plenty of NHL-calibre prospects along with several young pieces who made positive impacts for the Flames this season. They\u2019ll be adding to that even further June as they look to continue building towards the future.<\/p>\n

You might also like:Calgary Flames’ draft lottery odds are set<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Calgary Flames\u2019 2025-26 season coming to a close, the fan base is now turning their collective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-554994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116423662318284121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}