Today, we’ll take a look at the last ten Edmonton Oilers drafts: the misses and the hits. The scope of this article is the last ten years, precisely the Connor McDavid era. For that reason, you might assume that since adding McDavid, all their draft picks would be later or completely absent. However, this applies to recent drafts during the early years, as the Oilers were still landing some fairly solid picks.
I’d like to preface this article by saying that hindsight is 20/20. It’s very easy to say that the Oilers missed out on an all-star player and should therefore be drawn and quartered now that we know how it all unfolds. This reminds me that drafts are very uncertain, and known players should be valued more than picks by the GM.
That being said, nothing beats the excitement of draft day when every player could become the next McDavid and dominate. Here are the highs and lows of each of the last ten drafts, ranked from worst to best in my humble opinion.
2016 was a major miss for the Oilers
Arguably the worst miss that the Oilers have made these past ten years. Jesse Puljujarvi was a promising prospect, but looking back now, Matthew Tkachuk was taken at 6, Clayton Keller at 7, Mikhail Sergachev at 9, Charlie McAvoy at 14, Jakob Chychrun at 16, Tage Thompson at 2, Brett Howden at 27. All were taken in the first round after Puljujarvi. It’s tough not to look back now and shed a tear, well hidden from your colleagues of course, who might assume you’re crying over a particularly villainous spreadsheet again.
This is probably the most applicable “hindsight is 20/20” situation as Pulujarvi was a promising prospect but still, it just hurts to think what could have been. I put it as worst purely because of the volume of good players missed.
The Oilers also disappointed in 2021
This is definitely one of the more disappointing drafts of the last ten years.
Xavier Bourgault was picked 22nd overall, then traded to Ottawa for Roby Jarventie, which looks like a promising trade, as he put up 20 points in 22 games with the Belleville Senators. Jarventie recently signed a one-year, $775k deal with the Oilers.
The real travesty is that Wyatt Johnston was picked by Dallas exactly one pick later than Bourgault. Who would have thought scoring 124 points in your draft year would be an indicator of good things to come? At least the Oilers have beaten Johnston in the playoffs two years in a row; small comfort.
Another problem is that Minnesota traded up with Edmonton to take the goalie Jesper Wallstedt 20th overall. At the time, the Oilers were badly in need of a goalie and Wallstedt was promising, having put up a 2.23 GAA, .908 save percentage in the SHL. Wallstedt has regressed recently, but at the time, this felt like a big miss.
Broberg was the choice in 2019
While not such a spectacular first-round draft class, Matthew Boldy, Cole Caufield, Thomas Harley, and Connor McMichael were all taken in the first round after Philip Broberg, who was taken 8th overall. While the Oilers did make a decent pick with Broberg, who put up 29 points in 68 games last year, there is still an unhealthy dose of salt left in the wound made when St. Louis offer-sheeted him. For the missed players and the salted wound, I have ranked this as the third-worst draft year.
The Oilers followed it up with Holloway
This draft was a fairly uneventful draft for the Oilers. There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that the Oilers actually picked pretty well with Dylan Holloway at 14th overall. There isn’t really anyone taken later in the first round that you could say is better, especially not after the year Holloway had in St. Louis, 63 points in 77 games.
That brings me to the bad news though. Dylan Holloway was also offer-sheeted by the Blues. For that reason, this draft is almost as sour as the Broberg draft, except that the Oilers picked pretty well.
Late Hutson slipped out of Edmonton’s hands in 2022
The Oilers took Reid Schaefer 32nd overall who never played a game for the Oilers but was part of the trade with the Nashville Predators that brought Matthias Ekholm to Edmonton. So in that way, it worked out well for the Oilers.
The only cause for some distress this year is that Edmonton traded their second-round pick to Montreal to acquire Brett Kulak, and Montreal went on to pick Lane Hutson, the reigning Calder trophy winner. You can’t blame the Oilers’ head office for that situation, but it just feels like such bad luck. Hutson could’ve been an Oiler…
2023
The Oilers only had three total picks, and they picked Beau Akey with their highest pick, a second-round pick. Beau Akey is a right-shot defenceman who scored 32 points in 52 games with the Barrie Colts of the OHL.
2024
The Oilers picked forward Sam O’Reilly 32nd overall. He put up 71 points in 62 games with the London Knights last year. O’Reilly is a promising prospect, but it’s far too early to say how good he can be. It’s also too early to say whether or not the Oilers missed any undercover stars.
2017
This was a pretty solid draft. Stu Skinner was taken in the 3rd round, 78th overall. Fans understandably have mixed feelings about Skinner. He hasn’t been perfect, but he’s played a key role in two Cup Final runs.
Then the Oilers took Kailer Yamamoto 22nd overall who scored 118 points as an Oiler and just put up 56 points in 54 games in the AHL last year with Utah’s affiliate.
The reason for tears in this draft is that Jake Oettinger was taken 26th overall, four picks after Yamamoto. Oh well, you can’t win them all.
2018 was a surprisingly strong draft for the Oilers
This year may just be the best year outside of the obvious. Evan Bouchard was taken 10th overall, Ryan McLeod 40th, Olivier Rodrigue 62nd, and Michael Kesselring at 164. Bouchard may not be perfect defensively but he has put up 238 points in 347 games and has become the Oilers premier offensive defenseman.
For those of you who don’t know, Rodrigue is the Bakersfield Condors’ starting goalie. He played two games with the Oilers this year. In the 23-24 season, he put up an impressive 2.73 GAA and .916 save percentage. Unfortunately, he regressed this year to 3.12 and .897, but there is still some hope that he can turn out to be an impressive NHL regular.
McLeod had a very strong year in Buffalo with 53 points in 79 games. Kesselring had 29 points in 82 games with Utah and was just traded to the Buffalo Sabres. This draft is high on the list because of Evan Bouchard and Rodrigue who are still with the Oilers organization as well as because the Oilers had the foresight to make good picks, if not quite enough to hold on to those players.
2015 was the strongest draft yet
This is, of course, the best Oilers draft of the last ten years. No matter what happened in rounds 2-7, even if former GM Peter Chiarelli had gotten up on stage and called my name for every single other pick, this would still be the best draft of the last ten years.
While picking McDavid was almost universally accepted as the correct decision (there were some poor misguided souls who thought otherwise, these are the same type of people that gave Forrest Gump only 8 stars out of 10) and you therefore couldn’t call this a steal, it still has to be considered the best draft because of what McDavid has become.
Beyond McDavid, some decent players were taken in the later rounds. Caleb Jones in the 4th round – 117th overall, Ethen Bear in the 5th – 124 overall, and John Marino in the 6th – 154th overall.
Tune in tonight, and see what the Oilers can do with their 3rd round – 83rd overall pick.
