Puljujarvi was the BPA and a fantastic pick - A+
Benson isn't a terrible pick...better players available but he does have a bit of upside that we didn't see due to the injuries. He's a guaranteed bottom six player at the least. - B
Niemelainen isn't as good as HF thinks he is. Sure he's big, but I don't see much of a true upside here. Fairly soft, doesn't have much of a shot. His potential is a No.5 D to me so I'm not in love with this compared to everyone else. C
Berglund is kind of interesting, another guy who got killed by injuries last year. Overagers are hard to predict especially when they're playing in Swe Jr. but there's some potential here and he shoots right which is awesome. B-
Cairns is a guy I really like but it's a long con. Probably has No.4 potential, maybe a 3. Can move the puck and be tough. Makes a few errors that need correcting mentally. Also needs to play in a stronger league. B
Rasanen had a great U-18 but that was because of who he played with. I'm not super convinced that he's going to be a player yet. His Fin Jr. numbers aren't bad but not impressive. We'll see. C+
Wells had one good tourney at the Ivan Hlinka. He also had an awful season. Not really a fan at all of this pick but goalies are voodoo. I guess the question is why we're taking a goalie then if he doesn't have underlying stats to support him. D
Desharnais was only picked because he's big and he shoots right. There were way more guys on the board that Edmonton passed over. Not a fan of this one. D
Graham McPhee is a guy where he only really impressed at the U-18s and partly that's because the US had a stacked roster. 5 goals at the USHL level and middling numbers for the USDP, despite being small. At least he's not a lazy player. We'll see where this one goes C-
Despite ALL of that analysis above, these guys aren't even 20 yet. It's so hard to project where their games will go. Always hopeful on all of them.
Good write-up, I agree on all of them.
I think, objectively speaking, the Oilers had a good draft. It's hard to complain about adding some solid prospects. It's just the type of prospects that I'm not really sold on unfortunately. I wouldn't have picked any of the guys we took outside the 1st round.
Getting a guy who had 5 points in the BCHL with our 7th instead of Sokolov/Ronning/Sawchenko is a bit perplexing. Hell, I'd take those guys with 3rd and 5th round picks. Ditto Tuulola who was selected in the 6th round.
The most disappointing part though was taking Niemeläinen at #63, a guy who projects as a shutdown defenseman with limited offense if he does make it, over two really skilled offensive d-men in Dineen and Fox. May I remind you Tyson Barrie, who many of us have been clamoring for, is an undersized offensive d-man who was selected 64th overall?
If you want a player like that on your team you have to draft him. Instead we keep adding these big, defensive guys with limited offense, which I guess in a vacuum is fine, but when we're already filled to the brim with that type of d-man it wouldn't be so bad at trying our hand at taking a couple of smaller ones with high-end offense and hoping they pan out. I would've gladly taken both of Dineen/Fox with picks 32/63.