Matthew Phillips is, probably, Seattle's pick. If they pick an old dman it will, probably, be Burns...

I'd take Backlund over Giordano honestly. The C pool of players for Seattle to take is going to be bad. Backlund could realistically become 1C of that team.

I like the FLA trade, but I don't know whether they'd be moving another D after losing Ekblad.

The difference is the term. Giordano will have one year left and Burns will have four. I don't know if I'd take Phillips over a proven captain to kickstart a new franchise.

I'd take Henrique over Backlund tbh, as well as some other centers likely to be exposed

As for the FLA deal, it likely happens during the offseason before the ED. Should have written it.

I'd personally take Backlund. His performance is a tad better over Henrique's, at least statistically, not to mention there's some good young D-men to pick from ANA, meanwhile in CGY the pool of prospects to take is much smaller in my opinion.

Mahura+Backlund sounds better to me than Gawdin/Phillips+Henrique respectively.

In what category is he better? Over the last three years, Henrique has been statistically better and he's younger. As for Mahura, Phillips, or any other 22-ish unproven prospects, there will be dozens of that and who knows how they will turn out. Same for some of my fellow Habs fan who want to protect Cale Fleury over Edmundson. If I'm a new franchise with a non-existent fanbase, I pick a leader like Giordano for sure.

They're going to get at least 30 players in the draft. Not all will be NHL guys. Some will have to be sent to minors.

I'd be a bit suspicious if a proven captain is left unprotected...

He's nearing the end of his career. I wouldn't be surprised if Shea Weber is not protected also. Logically they have to protect Tanev-Andersson-Hanifin over him.

These guys are about as even as it gets, points-wise, contract-wise and age-wise. From 2018-19 to this day Backlund has 10 points more than Henrique, he's a year older than Henrique, but also $0,5M cheaper than Henrique. Can't really get much of a difference there. Guess Backlund's just my personal preference.

I wouldn't use my pick on Giordano, because he's strictly a one year asset. SEA is not getting the same privilege of good picks as VGK did because teams now know what that may lead to. Most likely they're going to retool slowly.

As for prospects, I'd prefer the ANA ones as they have accrued some NHL experience. Larsson has 150 games, Mahura 40 games...CGY prospects haven't played 10 games combined.

Protecting Fleury over Edmundson sounds pretty memeworthy to me. I can't think any other options but Allen to be the most logical option to pick from Habs.

On the surface they have more or less identical numbers, but after digging deep, it appears that Henrique's numbers are superior to Backlund's.
As for the prospects, my point remains that even Mahura's 40 games should not be a decisive factor into taking your future captain or not. You're basically taking a risk with either Mahura or Phillips or whoever. And Larsson was atrocious for most of these 150 games. Giordano is a one-year asset but he's still a solid defenseman who could be re-signed à la Deryk Engelland with Vegas.

Pretty sure that 1st has more value than Labanc right now

Idk about this, @Ledge_And_Dairy. It's going to be Gaudreau's last contract year as well as Tkachuk's. I'd say the Flames will bounce back, led by those two. Labanc is a controlled asset for three more years and a great points producer.

Which numbers are superior exactly?

If they wanted to make a captaincy pick, they could for instance consider taking McDonagh from Tampa, if he's left unprotected.

If I were Francis, I wouldn't pick a 38-year old D-man with one year left to be my captain. There might be even a risk of him quitting outright if he's taken away from the team he's been playing for his entire career.

They'll be picking some prospects regardless. It's always lotto with prospects. But based on what I've seen now, Mahura seems the most potential of them out of these two teams.

Who knows if there's a new Shea Theodore for them.

Probably pass. The sharks are kind of better than the Flames tbh

Hey we've got some opening for GMs for the GM Game on CapFriendly. I know we've talked before and I remember you mentioned you were interested, but the timing didn't work out the best. Just wanted to see if this is a better time for you

The issue is that pick could very well be top 10. And Labanc and Armia are not going to be players that fix the issues in Calgary