The calgary flames dropped two spots to No. 6 overall in Tuesday’s NHL Draft Lottery after entering with 9.5 percent odds of moving from No. 4 to No. 1. That leaves the club in the same draft slot it has used five times before, with another premium pick still available next month in Buffalo.
Conroy’s six-player board
Craig Conroy said the Flames have "six guys that we really like," and the draft order will now hinge on who comes off the board before Calgary picks. He told Flames TV, "You always want to go higher and make a pick, but we do know that there’s really good players in that area," and added, "It’ll just be a matter of who gets picked ahead of us and what we’ll be able to get at No. 6."
He also said, "We don't take any pick for granted and can't wait to go." That is the practical part for Calgary: the team is not chasing a single outcome anymore, but sorting through a group of players it already values at a spot where the board can change fast.
Calgary’s sixth-overall history
The Flames have never made a top-three draft selection, one of only three active NHL clubs in that position, alongside the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth. Their history at No. 6 is not empty, though. Calgary picked sixth overall in 2013 and 2016, using those choices on Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk, and Conroy was part of the front office for both selections.
That gives the organization a familiar reference point as it moves into another draft with real leverage. Six has been a productive slot before, and this time the club arrives there with a wider menu of picks and prospects than it had at the start of the season.
Flames stockpile for Buffalo
Calgary’s draft hand was built during the 2025-26 regular season, when it traded Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri. Those moves brought back two first-round picks, five second-round picks and a handful of prospects, including Abram Wiebe, who played NHL games for the Flames this spring.
The club also received Olli Maatta and Zach Whitecloud in those deals. Next month in Buffalo, the Flames will have two first-round picks, four second-round picks and two third-round picks, so the No. 6 selection will be one piece of a much larger draft slate rather than the whole picture.
That is where the pressure shifts for Calgary. A top-three swing was the dream, but the real work now starts with the board in front of them, the players still available, and the choice they make with a draft cache that can keep reshaping the roster over the next several years.
