Flames add five new players on second day of 2023 NHL draft

Flames fourth-round draft pick Jaden Lipinski meets Flames executive Jerome Iginla at the NHL draft.

The Calgary Flames added a pair of forwards, a pair of defencemen and a goalie Thursday at the 2023 NHL draft in Nashville, Tenn.

That all came on the heels of choosing Slovakian forward Samuel Honzek of the Vancouver Giants in the WHL with the 16^th pick of the draft Wednesday.

For their five Thursday picks, the Flames chose another Vancouver Giant, Jaden Lipinski, in addition to dipping into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the BC Hockey League, the Moscow Hockey League and the Swedish Junior for players.

In the second round, the Flames grabbed defenceman Etienne Morin with the 48^th overall pick. Morin is 182 centimetres (six feet) tall, and weighs 81 kilograms (180 pounds). Last season with Moncton of the QMHL, he played 67 games, picking up 21 goals and 51 assists for 72 points.

In the third round, they chose left wing Aydar Suniev with the 80^th overall pick. Last season, Suniev played 50 games for Penticton of the BCHL, scoring 45 goals and adding 45 assists for 90 points.

In the fourth round, the club selected centre Lipinski from the Giants with the 112^th pick overall, where he played 66 games, tallying 19 goals and adding 32 assists for 51 points.

The Flames had no pick in the fifth round, but in the sixth used the 176^th pick to choose goaltender Yegor Yegorov, who played 15 games for the Dynamo Moscow Jrs, winning nine, losing four and recording a .915 save percentage and 2.29 goals against.

The team's final pick was 208^th overall in the seventh round: defenceman Axel Hurtig from the Swedish Junior league. Hurtig played 34 games in Sweden, scoring two and picking up six assists.