2011 National Hockey League Entry Draft: Calgary Flames Picks and Trade Round-Up
The 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft that was so highly anticipated after the regular season ended has come to a close and all teams are back in their respective hometowns after two days of intense trading and drafting at the Xcel Energy Center
in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Calgary Flames made some surprising moves at the draft along with making one of the biggest trades of the offseason.
In a sudden and shocking move in order to make salary cap space for the attacking forward, Alex Tanguay, general manager of Flames, Jay Feaster, had to take a bold step.
He traded Robyn Regehr to Buffalo Sabres along with Ales Kotalik and a second-round draft pick in exchange for defenseman Chris Butler and center Paul Byron.
The 12-year-veteran spent his whole career with Flames and was disappointed at first, but expressed his confidence in the management’s decisions.
The 31-year-old's move opened up enough salary cap space for Calgary to re-sign Alex Tanguay to a five-year, $17.5 million contract.
Buffalo, on the other hand, was delighted with the trade.
"It's not just veteran leadership, it is size and experience. We added size as well. With the history he has and the age he is at, he has years ahead to play. I think he can really do a lot for our younger defensemen", Sabres' general manager, Darcy Regier,
said.
The 31-year-old defenseman put up 17 points in the previous 2010-2011 regular season as he played 79 games, including 15 assists and two goals.
Entry Draft Round 1
Calgary Flames had the 13th pick of the first-round which they utilised to pick Sven Baertschi, a Swiss left winger from the Portland team in the Western Hockey League (WHL).
Baertschi’s pick moved Calgary off course, which is usually a local big type of guy picking team, but this time around, settled for a European alternative.
Baertschi led the WHL”s rookies by scoring the most points in a single season, 85, 34 goals, 51 assists.
Entry Draft Round 2
In the second-round, Calgary had three picks, one which they sent along to Buffalo with Robyn Regehr.
They picked up Markus Granlund, 45th overall, another European from Oulu, Finland, who has a brother Michael, drafted by Minnesota Wild in the previous NHL Entry Draft.
Granlund put up 52 points with the Finland Junior League, consisting of 20 goals and 32 assists.
Flames used its 57th overall and drafted Tyler Wotherspoon also from the Portland franchise.
Wotherspoon, a defenseman, played 64 games with Portland and registered 12 points.
Entry Draft Round 4
Next came John Gaudreau, a resident of Salem, New Jersey, USA, as the 104th overall in the fourth round.
He played with the Dubuque franchise of the United States Hockey League (USHL) and had 72 points including 36 goals and 36 assists, which is surprising looking at his 5’6, 141lbs frame.
Entry Draft Round 6
Calgary chose a goalie with their last pick. They drafted Laurent Brossoit, 164th overall pick in the sixth-round, a resident of Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada, who played for the Edmonton club in the WHL.
He played 34 games with them and maintained a save percentage of .887 and 3.32 goals against average.
This move was obviously aimed and giving their main goalie, Mikka Kiprusoff, another backup to train him for future games.
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