Sorry if you're offended.
The Oilers had a reputation of not being able to draft will and develop just as poorly. Over the past 2-4 years Oiler fans have been saying how since Lowe etc took over they've gotten better at this, but where is the proof?
Smid, Torres, Stoll? All drafted by other organizations where their development was already taking place. I'll give you partial credit for Stoll however, as he didn't spend one game in the Flames farm system.
Hemsky, Horcoff, Pisani.. whoop de do?
We all heard about the Oilers prospects back in 2003/2004, they had Jani Rita, Alexi Mikhnov, Jesse Niinimaki, Doug Lynch, Jeff Woywitka, Jeff Drouin-Delariaus, etc etc etc
Now there is a new batch to over-hype.
I think it's time a team like the Devils, who develop players get the benefit of the doubt over teams like the Oilers, who, until they PROVE they can, not just fan wanting, to do.
I do still have my own questions and skepticism about Oiler drafting and development particularly in regards to top end talent, but I have no doubt we have improved under the Lowe and Pendengrast regime over the Sather and Frasier regime I know this is the basis of much of your arguement, I just don't feel like digging into at depth at the moment.
So I'll address some of our crappy over-hyped 2003-04 prospects:
Top 20 from a Guy Flaming article on Oct 10, 2003 comments are my own -
1. Jeff Deslauriers - clock is ticking on him, NHL backup if were lucky
2. Jani Rita - played some games, no NHL success, back in Finland
3. Jarret Stoll - established NHL player
4. Raffi Torres - established NHL player
5. Jessi Niinimaki - bust
6. Marc-Antoine Pouliot - yet to be determined made some strides to cementing himself an NHL job
7. Alexei Mikhnov - most likely a bust
8. Tony Salmelainen - good enough to land us Spacek and played some games for Chicago this year
9. Marc-Andre Bergeron - looks to have a long career ahead of him on 3rd pair or as depth
10. Doug Lynch - bust
11. Matt Greene - looks to be NHL established, but has experienced some ups and downs in development
12. Colin McDonald - yet to be determined hasn't demonstrated much scoring ability in College
13. Bobby Allen - Depth defenseman
14. Brad Winchester - on the fringe between AHL/NHL
15. Kyle Brodziak - on the fringe between AHL/NHL
16. Mishail Joukov - yet to be determined, said to be near NHL ready in paper haven't seen much of him
17. Dwight Helminen - traded to Rangers as small part of Nedved deal, not really sure on progress
18. Fredrik Johansson - yet to be determined, I think he's coming to AHL this year
19. Michael Svensk - no clue (assuming bust)
20. Ed Caron - retired
Lot of busts and maybe's in there but you can say that about a lot of teams top 20 lists, we still had a good amount turn out.