{"id":573175,"date":"2026-05-12T15:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/573175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:51:14","slug":"ranking-the-calgary-flames-best-top-five-draft-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/573175\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the Calgary Flames’ Best Top-Five Draft Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The draft lottery took place earlier this week, with the Calgary Flames holding the fourth-best odds to move up. It looked like they had a good chance to pick in the top three for the first time since moving to Calgary. Unfortunately, luck was not on their side. Instead, both the Toronto Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks leap-frogged the Flames, knocking them back to sixth<\/a> in the draft order.<\/p>\n

The disappointment is still lingering from watching the Flames\u2019 pick end up outside the top five, at least for this fan. So, instead of focusing on the future, today, we\u2019re going to go back in time. Let\u2019s look at the Calgary Flames\u2019 best top-five draft picks since relocating to Calgary in 1980.<\/p>\n

Worst seasons in Calgary Flames history<\/p>\n

Before getting into the rankings, I want to first take a look at some of the Flames\u2019 worst seasons. It starts with this season, position-wise. The Flames finished 29th in the NHL in 2025\u201326 with 77 points. They entered the draft lottery with the fourth-best odds and came out with the sixth overall pick.<\/p>\n

The 2013\u201314 season was only better on a technicality, as there were fewer teams in the league. A 77-point season that year saw the Flames ranked 27th in the NHL. They were the fourth-worst team in the league and came out of the lottery with the fourth overall pick.<\/p>\n

Yet another 77-point season in 2015\u201316 saw the Flames finish 26th in the NHL. They were fifth-last in the league that year and ended up with the sixth overall pick. There were three draft lotteries that year; the 30th-place Maple Leafs won the lottery for the first overall pick. The Winnipeg Jets knocked the Flames out of the top five, jumping from sixth to second. Lastly, the Columbus Blue Jackets won the third lottery, moving from fourth to third.<\/p>\n

In 2012\u201313, the Flames finished the lockout-shortened season with 42 points. They were 25th in the NHL and had the sixth-best odds at the lottery. It was just a single lottery that year, with the Colorado Avalanche winning it to move from second to first. This meant the Flames retained their spot at sixth overall.<\/p>\n

The Flames\u2019 fifth-worst season came in 2023\u201324. They finished 24th with 81 points and went into the lottery with the ninth-best odds, landing the ninth overall pick. The 32nd-place San Jose Sharks won the lottery for first, while the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks won the lottery for second.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Calgary Flames\u2019 best top-five picks<\/p>\n

Without further ado, let\u2019s look at the Flames\u2019 best top-five picks!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take it from the top: number one goes to none other than Sam Bennett. The Flames\u2019 second-worst season saw them land their highest-ever pick in the draft. They used that pick on Bennett following a 91-point season for the OHL\u2019s Kingston Frontenacs.<\/p>\n

With talk of Bennett possibly going first overall, it was exciting for him to fall to the Flames at four. Bennett was NHL Central Scouting\u2019s top-ranked North American skater. He was also ranked well ahead of the top European skater\u2014Kasperi Kapanen\u2014who was expected to be more of a mid-round pick.<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s remarkable pull-up ability turned heads at the 2014 Draft Combine. If you forgot or are otherwise unaware, I\u2019ll let you in on the secret; you don\u2019t need to look it up yourself. The top-ranked prospect failed to complete a single pull-up.<\/p>\n

Anyway, enough about the Flames\u2019 best top-five pick. Let\u2019s look at the rest of their top-five picks:<\/p>\n

There are none. Sam Bennett is the Flames\u2019 one and only top-five draft pick. That\u2019s partly what makes falling to sixth this year so much more disappointing. On a more positive note, though, the Flames should still get a solid prospect at six. They\u2019ve had good fortune drafting at this position in the past<\/a>, after all.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek commentary on the Flames\u2019 misfortunes!<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The draft lottery took place earlier this week, with the Calgary Flames holding the fourth-best odds to move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[26500,12555,36978,1226,7704,40821,895,26,5294,896,5,4,83,168,31],"class_list":["post-573175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary-flames","tag-2013-nhl-draft","tag-2014-nhl-draft","tag-2016-nhl-draft","tag-2024-nhl-draft","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-2026-nhl-draft-lottery","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgaryflames","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-sam-bennett","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116562407142942914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573175","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=573175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}