Ten years ago, the Calgary Flames headed into the 2015 NHL Draft weekend with a bunch of picks and the hope that they could put together a draft that met their needs.

A decade after that weekend, it stands as one of the more important 48-hour periods in franchise history. So what do the Flames have to show for their 2015 NHL Draft class?

The draft class, at a glance

Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s go one piece at a time.

The Flames’ allocated 2015 draft choices

The Flames were originally allocated seven picks through the draft process, the 15 selection in each round:

• 1st round, 15th overall
• 2nd round, 45th overall
• 3rd round, 76th overall
• 4th round, 106th overall
• 5th round, 136th overall
• 6th round, 166th overall
• 7th round, 196th overall

Picks added and subtracted via trades before the draft

Well prior to the draft weekend, the Flames had traded their fourth-round pick to San Jose to acquire T.J. Galiardi. But they added three high picks through a pair of trades prior to the 2015 trade deadline: a second-round pick (53rd overall) from Vancouver in exchange for pending restricted free agent Sven Baertschi, and second (52nd overall) and third-round (83rd overall) picks from Washington in exchange for pending unrestricted free agent Curtis Glencross.

So the Flames headed to Sunrise, Florida for the draft with six picks in the first three rounds of the draft. For a team that was pretty early in their rebuilding process – they had traded Jarome Iginla just two years prior – it seemed like they were well-positioned to add pieces.

Trades during draft weekend

The Flames made two trades during the draft weekend: one on Friday and one on Saturday. Both were fairly significant.

• On Friday, prior to to the start of the first round, the Flames traded their first-round pick (15th overall), their second-round pick (45th overall) and Washington’s second-round pick (52nd overall) to Boston for pending RFA blueliner Dougie Hamilton.
• On Saturday, near the end of the second round, the Flames traded up, sending their own third-rounder (76th overall) and Washington’s third-round pick (83rd overall) to Arizona in exchange for the 60th overall pick, originally Tampa Bay’s second-round pick.

Picks made during draft weekend

The Flames ended up making five draft selections:

• In the second round, 53rd overall, they used Vancouver’s pick to select defenceman Rasmus Andersson.
• In the second round, 60th overall, they used Tampa Bay’s pick (acquired from Arizona) to select defenceman Oliver Kylington.
• In the fifth round, 136th overall, they used their own pick to select forward Pavel Karnuakhov.
• In the sixth round, 166th overall, they used their own pick to select forward Andrew Mangiapane.
• In the seventh round, 196th overall, they used their own pick to select defenceman Riley Bruce.

What did they get for their picks?

Okay, the bad news first. Karnaukhov was playing as an import with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen in his draft year, but he elected to head back to Russia in 2016 and, to date, has yet to return to North America. He’s become a regular with CSKA Moskva in the KHL but it seems unlikely that he’ll ever sign with the Flames. Meanwhile, Bruce wasn’t offered a contract in the two years after being drafted and his rights lapsed. He last played with the University of Toronto in 2021-22.

Aside from that, there’s a lot of good news for the Flames from 2015.

Andersson worked his way to the NHL after a brief stop in the AHL. He’s played 536 games for the Flames, as of this writing, and while it seems likely that he’ll be traded before he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 season, this is a home run of a draft choice… and could produce even more value depending on how the trade situation shakes out.

Kylington was a bit more of a project for the Flames, as he had to build up his defensive game. He ended up playing 201 games for the Flames, even though he missed significant time while tending to his mental health. He departed the Flames as a free agent at the end of the 2023-24 season. For a late second-round pick, getting 200 games is good value.

Galiardi played 62 games for the Flames before departing as a free agent. For a fourth-round pick, that’s decent enough value.

Mangiapane was selected in his second year of eligibility and was a great find for the Flames that late. He played 417 games for the Flames before being traded to Washington during the 2024 off-season for a 2025 second-round pick, which the Flames used to select Theo Stockselius. A sixth-round pick even playing NHL games is fairly uncommon, while one playing over 400 games is extremely rare. This is a great pick, and could look even better depending on how Stockselius pans out.

Okay, the trades…

The Flames used three picks to acquire Hamilton, who signed a new contract and played 245 games with the Flames. Then he was packaged with Micheal Ferland and the rights to college prospect Adam Fox and traded to Carolina in a trade that netted the Flames the rights to RFAs Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. They both signed deals with the Flames, with Lindholm playing 418 games with the Flames and Hanifin playing 420.

Lindholm was subsequently traded to Vancouver in exchange for Andrei Kuzmenko, prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo, and a 2024 first-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick. (Brzustewicz has played one game so far.)

• The first-rounder was used to select Matvei Gridin.
• The fourth-rounder was traded in exchange for a fifth-rounder (used to select Luke Misa) and a sixth-rounder (used to select Eric Jamieson).
• After playing 66 games with the Flames, Kuzmenko was packaged with Jakob Pelletier and a 2025 second-round pick and a 2028 seventh-round pick and traded to Philadelphia in exchange for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. Frost has played 32 games for the Flames, Farabee has played 31.

Hanifin was subsequently traded to Vegas in exchange for Daniil Miromanov, a conditional 2026 first-round pick and a conditional 2024 third-round pick. (The third-rounder was used to select Kirill Zarubin.) To date, Miromanov has played 64 games for the Flames.

All-told, the Flames’ wheeling and dealing surrounding the 2015 draft, and a few related assets (such as Adam Fox, Micheal Ferland, Jakob Pelletier and a couple draft picks), has netted them roughly 2,493 NHL games via the players they’ve acquired. In addition to the pending 2026 first-round pick (from Vegas), the Flames still have Rasmus Andersson, Theo Stockselius, Matvei Gridin, Hunter Brzustewicz, Luke Misa, Eric Jamieson, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Daniil Miromanov and Kirill Zarubin to show for all their moves.

In other words: what do the Flames have to show for the 2015 draft? Quite a lot.