Johnny Gaudreau and a history of pick #104.

With the Flames pretty much being assured that the playoffs aren't happening this season, all focus now turns to the off season and more specifically, the NHL Draft. The NHL Draft history is littered with "can't miss prospects" who missed and late round "who's?" that had quality careers in the NHL. The Flames added to that list when they grabbed Johnny Gaudreau with the 104th pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. For some reason, "Johnny Hockey" stayed on the board until the 4th round where the Flames picked the Gloucester City, NJ and Boston College star. To say the results have been good is an understatement. Gaudreau jumped into the Flames lineup for one game after leaving BC in 2013 and scored a goal in the final game that year. 1 game, 1 goal. Not bad. His rookie year was off the charts: 24 goals, 40 assists and 9 points in the playoffs. He's showing no signs of slowing down this season either as he leads all Flames in goals (22) and assists (35). He's a 2 time All Star and as it stands right now, will have a roster spot on the 2016 World Cup of Hockey Team North America squad. Johnny Gaudreau and the current young Flames have taken the city and league by storm. His flair for the dramatic, stick handling, humble nature and amazing skating is turning him into one of not only the league's young stars, but one of the NHL's must see players in general.

At the end of the 2015-16 season #13 is due to get a rather large increase in pay as his entry level contract is up. But not all #104 picks have the success that Calgary's new favorite son is having. 1970 was the first year the NHL Entry Draft expanded to include rounds that had at least 100 picks. Here's a look at who was been drafted at #104 from 1970-2013.*

*I left Ryan Mantha ('14) and Mikhail Vorobyov ('15) out because they haven't set foot in an NHL arena yet and I don't think it's fair to put them in a list to be judged.

**Todd McLellan has had a successful run as an NHL coach, coaching the San Jose Sharks and now the Edmonton Oilers. His career head coaching record is 333-195 and has made the playoffs in 6 out of his 8 seasons as a HC.

So there's your look at who has been drafted at #104 since 1970.  As you can see, over the course of time the #104 pick hasn't yielded great results. There are some household names in there and players who've had success at the NHL level. Marcus Foligno. Former Flame Brian McGratten. Jean Claude-Bergeron. Aaron Rome. And the players drafted in this spot from 1973-1976 all had serviceable NHL careers and could be considered value picks at that spot. With that said, you do find a lot more guys who never set foot in an NHL arena or if they did put on the sweater, they wore it in the penalty box more often than not.

All late round picks in most sports are crap shoots. For every Joe Montana, Tom Brady or Johnny Gaudreau there's a ton of Rod Lyons' who never pan out for whatever the reason might be. Today it is easier for a player who gets drafted in that spot to take hold with a team seeing there are more teams in the league then there were in 1972. Also, nutrition, travel and training facilities are much better now than they were even 10 years ago. Today's player does have an advantage over a guy drafted in that spot back in 1986, but what the Flames were able to get in Johnny Gaudreau and what he's producing, seems to be a "once in a lifetime" type situation.