PENTICTON, B.C. — They liked him. They liked him a lot.

So they wanted to avoid tipping their hand. No easy thing in a world as small as hockey’s.

To keep their degree of admiration hidden, they didn’t approach the player — not even once — leading up to the 2011 National Hockey League draft. And they took secrecy one step further by not talking to the boy’s junior coach, either.

Why? Because they knew that Peter Chiarelli, general manager of the Boston Bruins, had an ownership stake in the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints and, should they pick the brain of skipper Jim Montgomery, word of their interest could trickle back to Beantown.

But the Calgary Flames, with stealth, did their homework on Johnny Gaudreau.

Repeated viewings, of course. Also casual discussions with opposing coaches. These chats, by design, were kept lighthearted.

“Like, ’Hey, what about that Gaudreau kid?’ But not showing we were interested,” says Tod Button, the Flames’ director of amateur scouting. “More like: ‘That kid’s so small, how come you guys can’t stop him?’ ”

Their fascination with Gaudreau, as far as they knew, was never exposed.

Now, season over, the Flames’ bird-dogs still needed to sell the organization on the upside of a shrimpy left-winger.

The kid’s marks — for skill, for smarts — matched anyone’s in the top 10. At the Flames’ pre-draft powwow, Gaudreau’s high-end assets had been enthusiastically touted by Button and fellow scouts Rob Pulford and Duane Sutter.

“Everybody knew about Johnny . . . and the pitfalls of the size,” says Button. “Everyone was really excited when they heard how he played. I remember the buzz — ‘How can we do this? Are you sure we can get him?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not sure we can get him,’ because he was a known commodity.”

But Button had a plan.

Presiding over that draft had been Jay Feaster, whose work-the-list mantra had been well-established. But Button convinced him to leave Gaudreau and Russian winger Nikita Kucherov as wild cards. In other words, don’t include them in the team’s in-house rankings of prospects.

“I said to Jay, ‘I’d like the latitude of not putting them on the list. Then when it’s time to make the call, let me make the call,’ ” recalls Button.

The Flames merrily made their second-round shouts — Markus Granlund, 45th; Tyler Wotherspoon, 57th — then groaned when the Tampa Bay Lightning nabbed Kucherov at No. 58.

“I turned to Jay and said, ‘We’ve got to take Johnny with the next pick,’ ” recalls Button. “Jay said, ‘Go ahead. Take him.’ ”

Unfortunately for the Calgarians, Darryl Sutter had already peddled their third-round choice to the Edmonton Oilers in the Steve Staios deal.

So Button perspired his way into the fourth round and got his man, 104th overall.

And the Bruins, as it turned out, did have an eye on Gaudreau.

John Weisbrod, perched at the Boston table that day in St. Paul, Minn., verified that interest in a March 2012 interview: “Calgary beat us to the punch. There were people banging their hands on the table, like, ‘Oh, we should have taken him a round earlier.’ It’s a calculated risk. The Flames got Gaudreau in a really good spot.”

The New Jersey native had been no mystery.