By the time the sixth round of the NHL Draft rolls around, the draft boards are a bit picked-over but there’s still value to be had. Most teams have worked fairly far down their draft lists, but there are often still a few players they’re excited about, albeit ones with a few flaws.

The Calgary Flames haven’t cashed in big-time on sixth-rounders in awhile, perhaps since Andrew Mangiapane in 2015, but they’ve done a pretty decent job finding value there recently.

Their last five drafts

Here are the last five drafts worth of first-round selections for the Flames:

Notes:

• The Flames acquired St. Louis’ sixth-rounder in 2024 from Philadelphia when they traded back during the 2024 draft and used it to select Jamieson.
• The Flames traded their 2022 sixth-rounder to Florida as part of the Sam Bennett trade prior to the 2021 trade deadline.
• The Flames acquired Los Angeles’ sixth-rounder in 2021 when they traded back during the 2021 draft and used it to select Beck.

There’s some good and bad in the past five years. The good news is that the Flames have tended to get multiple kicks at the proverbial can in the sixth round in recent years. The bad news is that their results are mixed, with Rory Kerins getting NHL games in this season and Lucas Ciona seemingly finding his footing as an energy player with the Wranglers… but it’s unclear if anybody in this crop will become much at the NHL level. (Ciona turning out decently makes Jack Beck not panning out, or getting signed, sting a bit less.)

But hey: NHL games are better than expected given the draft slotting.

Historical hits

The Flames have found a bunch of interesting project players in the sixth round that have turned out fairly well.

Among them? Andrew Mangiapane (2015), Joni Ortio (2009), Brett Sutter (2005), Adam Pardy (2004) and two-time Stanley Cup champion Curtis McElhinney (2002).

Historical misses

We’re not going to criticize sixth-round picks for not becoming NHLers, because that’s a tall order this late in the proceedings. But if you’re holding teams accountable to their wins, you have to hold scouting and development teams accountable to their successes. When you’re able to find decent project picks in the late rounds that help flesh out your minor-league system, it’s a bit disappointing that the picks used for players they didn’t sign to entry-level deals like D’Artagnan Joly (2017), Tim Harrison (2013) or Coda Gordon (2012) weren’t used differently.