Calgary Flames’ draft capital a balancing act heading towards 2022 trade deadline

Friends, let me let you in on a little secret: hockey people love the annual NHL Draft. When the world’s normal-ish, all 32 teams (and a horde of media) descend on a city for a week for meetings, dinners, general camaraderie, and the selection of over 200 brand-new faces to the NHL family.

The more on-ice momentum (and draft capital) your franchise has, the more fun the draft week ends up being. And as the Calgary Flames march towards a supremely important 2022 trade deadline, their draft capital is something they really need to balance.

Both Jay Feaster and his successor Brad Treliving inherited rather lean farm systems, in part because of some bad draft luck prior and in part because of…