Since Brad Treliving became general manager of the Calgary Flames in April 2014, the hockey club has graduated several young players into the National Hockey League level. Some of the young graduates were slam dunks: Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk jumped into the NHL their first seasons after being drafted, and Johnny Gaudreau went straight onto the Flames roster the October after originally signing.
But plenty of teams are able to put freshly minted top prospects into the NHL with regularity. The thing that’s become a focus under Treliving – and as seen through internal investments in things like skating coaches, conditioning coaches at the NHL and AHL levels, and multiple development coaches – is the development of players with longer runways into useful depth pieces.