The Calgary Flames selected Luke Misa in the fifth round of the 2024 NHL Draft a year ago.

So far, Misa has been a very promising young hockey player and he’s still developing. The Flames and their fans are hoping that Misa can become something special at the pro level – or even just something period – because the hockey club has struggled to produce strong results in the fifth round.

Let us show you what we mean by that.

Their last five drafts

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

Notes:

• The Flames traded their 2024 fifth-rounder to Chicago for Ryan Carpenter prior to the 2022 trade deadline. 
• They acquired Los Angeles’ 2024 fifth-rounder from Philadelphia when they traded down during the 2024 NHL Draft.
• The Flames traded their 2023 fifth-rounder to Montreal as part of the Tyler Toffoli trade in 2022.

Well, this doesn’t look fantastic. Ryan Francis was not signed (and he’s turned into an ECHL player). Cole Jordan was not signed (and he’s in USports).

But there are some recent bright spots: Parker Bell has become a pretty solid depth AHLer, and it’s still early so he could develop into more than that. And Luke Misa was a superb OHLer that’s headed to the NCAA for the upcoming season.

The seventh round has produced more NHL games – and reliable pros – for the Flames than the fifth round has recently. That’s a trend that needs to change if the Flames are hoping to move their retooling process forward.

Historical hits

2010 fifth-rounder Micheal Ferland turned into a really solid NHL player, and it’s a damn shame his career was derailed by injuries. He’s also the most recent Flames fifth-rounder to play NHL games, with the Flames or any other club.

If you go back to 1975, Willi Plett – oddly enough, a fairly Ferland-y player – also turned out really well after being a fifth-rounder.

Historical misses

Parker Bell played AHL games for the Flames organization under an NHL contract over the past two seasons. The last fifth-rounder to sign an entry-level deal and play pro games for the Flames organization, prior to Bell, was 2012 pick Ryan Culkin.

The fifth round has not been a fruitful one for the Flames for a long while.