The 2015 NHL draft. This draft should have setup the Oilers to be a dominant team. We could have used the #16 and #33 pick to draft some excellent players.
At #16 any of Barzal, Connor, or Chabot would have been excellent
At #33 our rumored guy was B. Carlo. A top 4 RHD. Do we make the ill fated Hall trade if we had him in the pipeline?
What's even more disappointing for me is that one decision altered our franchise forever. If Bos accepts the trade of #16, #33, and #54 for D. Hamilton our team is set. We don't make the disastrous trade for Reinhart. We probably wouldn't have traded Hall the following year for Larsson. That one decision altered our franchise forever.
Yes we might not have Talbot but might have been able to acquire him with 2016 picks.
I still rather have Barzal/Connor/Chabot + Carlo than Hamilton but I could have lived with it as Hamilton would have provided exactly what we need right now and perhaps would have resulted in Hall still being on the team.
Honestly how good does this look (I'm assuming we keep Eberle as we likely wouldn't have signed Lucic if we still had Hall):
Maroon-McDavid-Eberle
Hall-Drai-Pulj
Caggiula-RNH-Slepy
Khaira-Letestu-Kassian
Nurse-Hamilton
Klefbom-Russell
Sekera-Benning
Talbot
We would have had two dominant scoring lines. We probably could have afforded to move Nuge to strengthen our backend even further. We would have had speed and skill throughout the lineup.
The 2015 NHL draft will haunt me as a fan for a long time. Yes we got McDavid but we could have got so much more.