Coming into the draft many Calgary fans thought a tiny little guy with speed would likely be the Flames pick on Friday night.
The club held down the 17th overall pick, and with the binge of defensemen expected to get snatched up before them the thought process was dead on in taking a forward. The Flames, a team lacking in up front skill at the moment could use a dose of pepper pot explosives, or so the theory went.
Instead the team moved back in the draft, a move that shed them 2 million in salary and saw them swap left wingers Alex Tanguay for Mike Cammalleri in separate deals. As a result they moved back eight spots to 25th overall and drafted Windsor Spitfire center Greg Nemisz.
The Good:
Nemisz is a center, a position the Flames badly need to stock up. He has massive size at 6”3″ and should fill out to be a Joel Otto sized pivot. He’s a goal scorer, with a heavy shot and a nose for the net, a tough guy to move that TSN was touting as a possible John Leclair type player. His attitude is A1, and he’s a thinking player that is hell bent on improving and making the move to the NHL.
The Bad:
Foot speed. In a time where the NHL is going all out in small guys with jets the Flames drafted a complete player save for the lack of wheels under his gargantuan frame. Can he add a gear? Possibly. However, big OHL player with hands have a tough road to the NHL if they don’t have the speed to get their bodies into the scoring positions.
Where did the little guys go? Jordan Eberle went to Edmonton, which was a nice touch as he grew up an Oiler fan. Mattias Tedenby went to the Devils with the TSN explanation of wheels that needs to work on hockey sense – perhaps too damn close to the Rico Fata syndrome, and a good miss by Calgary. Finally, a pick after the Flames, the Sabres took Tyler Ennis.
Central Scouting:
“Greg is a big player that goes to the net, he’s not overly physical but he doesn’t get knocked around either. He is good on the power-play, in the sense that he sets himself at the front of the net, he’s hard to move and he bangs in a lot of rebounds from there. ”
TSN:
“A big, diligent forward with an NHL-calibre shot who protects the puck well and understands the game. But he needs to pick up his skating, add a little more energy to his game. That could mean a fall into the second round, but then they were saying all the same things about Shawn Matthias a couple of years ago.”
CP Pick Assessment:
Generally draft picks are judged on merit, and you can’t lose sight of the fact that it’s a deep draft and the Flames needed to find a player know matter where they picked in the first round. However, when you consider that some had Nemisz going to Calgary in their original 17th spot, moving down eight spots and freeing up 2 million (and perhaps actually upgrading the left wing spot) isnt’ a bad day at the office at all. The speed thing for Nemisz scares me as much as the lack of vowels in his name (finally figuered out Curtis McElhinney’s spelling) but the “experts” seems rather convinced he’ll be a goal scorer at the NHL level, and you have to like that. All in all a very good day for Darryl Sutter at the draft. He moved Tanguay, which I believe was imperative in order to alter the chemistry up front, and added a player with speed and jam in Mike Cammalleri, a replacement for Tanguay that far exceeded my expectations for a Tanguay trade. Hopefully the 2 million in savings will be used to further add to the top six, even in a marginal scorer with wheels (Pascal Dupuis?) and with that the Flames will actually be a better team on paper next season then I envisioned.
