It's time for let's be fair!

[Game 8]

ok guys
I have followed this team for a long time and I'm as disappointed as anyone! If you asked when we drafted Hall which we needed to do if I thought we would be Ina position to get Mcdavid this year I would have said no way but here we are. This is the reality, some of our current and future management has actually put us in this position it's no secret but here is the reality!

We had some good pieces on this team that we traded for nothing or let leave and did not trade them for picks when we went in the toilet. We have been rebuilding from the ground up ever since. Circa Flames who have done a great job of this.

I'm not saying this is science but until next year we really did not have anyone to trade that would a. Get fair value. b. Not leave a huge hole in the lineup. Up until now despite all of the bs on here regarding making a trade with one player for another there really were no options.


Our drafting sucks! Nothing past the top of the first round, no defensive defensemen, no goalie prospects, no 3rd or 4th line players.

What's the point? If we get a generational player this draft we will finally have some excess to use to prop up other areas. With the group of forwards we should have it's very hard to believe even this bunch cannot ice a competitive team. No choice but bite the bullet this year, and let our coach take us to Tambo land! It was very clear in the preseason where we were heading when every dman we have treated the puck like a grenade and the goalies couldn't figure out how to get square with the shot..

Click to read more...

 

[thadd]

I really don't mind our drafting. It's improved by such a large margin since the 90's that you can't even compare it.
It's the culture we've got going.

We don't inspire players to have heart and we don't hold player accountable. That makes our players look like crap and makes it easy to question drafting, if you ask me.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I really don't mind our drafting. It's improved by such a large margin since the 90's that you can't even compare it.
It's the culture we've got going.

We don't inspire players to have heart and we don't hold player accountable. That makes our players look like crap and makes it easy to question drafting, if you ask me.

Sorry. When you draft to ten for 8 years in a row it is hard to **** up. On the 90.s we were dafting between 12th and 17th and that was a ceap shoot

 

[Spawn]

I really don't mind our drafting. It's improved by such a large margin since the 90's that you can't even compare it.

Our drafting outside the first round is brutal. 2004-2014:

Martin Marincin and Jeff Petry are our only NHL players we've drafted outside of the first round in the past 10 years.

1993-2003:
Satan
Laraque
Poti
Pisani
Chimera
Horcoff
Comrie
Stoll
Greene
Brodziak

Nothing really to write home about, but the Oilers drafting in later rounds in the 90s was massively better than it has been in the last 10 years. We were getting one legit NHLer a year on average.
Our drafting is absolutely a massive reason why our team is brutal. Not the only reason. But certainly a significant contributing factor.

 

[Game 8]

Mathematically if we can't draft anyone outside of the first round we will be stuck here forever! Maintaining our current spot in the standings we should get an early second round pick in a strong draft. If we waste that pick again it will be a crime! If we use it wisely we will add two important pieces in one year which would be huge! Trying to pull this bunch out of the fire right now makes no sense, conversely the question always arises. How much damage are we doing to the good players on the team?

 

[BarDownBobo]

Drafting is absolutely a problem for this team. The tidbit they had on the Hawks drafting yesterday was absolutely telling about how important it is. They've got two guys from the 2011 draft that are NHL regulars now(Shaw and Saad), and two that are just cracking the lineup now(Danault and Clendening). Danault was the only one that was a first rounder, and he was a late one at that. Who's the last non first rounder to pan out here? Petry?

 

[Game 8]

Drafting is absolutely a problem for this team. The tidbit they had on the Hawks drafting yesterday was absolutely telling about how important it is. They've got two guys from the 2011 draft that are NHL regulars now(Shaw and Saad), and two that are just cracking the lineup now(Danault and Clendening). Danault was the only one that was a first rounder, and he was a late one at that. Who's the last non first rounder to pan out here? Petry?

Being realistic very little coming as well. All the areas we are especially week in are players who are typically drafted after the first round. Scouting is the life blood of any organization, our team is a reflection of the plugs we have in the scouting department. Why we allow this displays who in management is paying attention to the organization.

 

[Zaddy]

Drafting is absolutely a problem for this team. The tidbit they had on the Hawks drafting yesterday was absolutely telling about how important it is. They've got two guys from the 2011 draft that are NHL regulars now(Shaw and Saad), and two that are just cracking the lineup now(Danault and Clendening). Danault was the only one that was a first rounder, and he was a late one at that. Who's the last non first rounder to pan out here? Petry?

Petry and Marincin. I've been a big fan of Chicago's drafting. They've got some real solid pieces throughout the years outside of the 1st round. Not only mentioned Saad and Shaw (who was a 5th rounder btw) but also Marcus Krüger (again, 5th rounder), Ben Smith (6th rounder) and Niklas Hjalmarsson (4th rounder). They've gotten some major contributions from these guys and that's with mostly late choices. That's not close to the whole story either seeing how they have plenty of players who are just now breaking in like Nordström and Clendening and other guys who they didn't have room for being regular on other teams (Pirri, Olsen). Then they have even more guys who are waiting in the wings and will be NHL players like Dahlbeck and Johns. This is not even including late 1st rounders Danault, McNeill, Hartman, Teräväinen, Hayes (who is now a regular on the Rangers) etc.

You need to be able to frequently get major pieces from outside the 1st round if you want to be successful in this league. That's just how it works. Look at Boston. Their entire core was taken in the 2nd & 3rd round (Bergeron, Lucic, Krejci, Marchand). Hell, they got Kessel, Lucic and Marchand in the same draft!! They also drafted Krejci, Versteeg and Hunwick in the same draft with the two latter going in the 5th and 7th round respectively and combining for over 730 NHL games. The year before they got Mark Stuart, Bergeron and Nate Thompson. Also a very solid draft.

That level of drafting is what you need to be a good team today. Of course it's not only about drafting but also about development. But being able to identify the right players is something the Oilers have been historically bad at and something that needs changing. I was so hopeful for this last draft but ended up unbelievably disappointed. It's not even about whether or not the prospect selected reaches the NHL, it's about consistently selecting the player who has the highest chance of actually reaching the NHL.

For instance, we selected BCHL overager Liam Coughlin in round 5 at #130. Sure you can say "blah blah, everything beyond the 2nd or 3rd round is a crapshoot", but I don't buy it. Who has the best shot at reaching the NHL? A BCHL '94 born forward who's not even producing at a PPG clip or a '96 born defenseman producing at a 0.55ppg clip in WHL and just won the Memorial Cup? (using Dysin Mayo from the Oil Kings selected at #133 as an example). For me I go with Mayo everytime. But the Oilers always try to outsmart everyone else.

Even worse, we selected a goalie no one had even heard of in '94 born Zachary Nagelvoort at #111 with plenty of much more interesting prospects available. I actually made a list of prospects I was interested in before the draft and needless to say we didn't select one of them, instead we went completely off the board with #111 and #130. At #111 a lot of intruiging guys were available. The russian goalie Igor Shestyorkin (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=195577) who I never heard of before the draft but has great numbers and looks like a real prospect.

Then a lot of other guys I liked like Calgary Hitmen RHD Ben Thomas (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=62287), Cape Breton C Clark Bishop (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=191376), small Sherbrooke pivot Daniel Audette (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=128505), Rourke Chartier (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=120201) and Shane Gersich (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=168706). All of them would have been safer choices than the two we went with.

Hell, you could dispute the Lagesson pick seeing how highly praised finnish goalies Ville Husso (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=50661) and Kaapo Käkhönen (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=114708) and swedish C Lucas Wallmark (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=39022) was still available. American powerforward Shane Eiserman (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=177720) could've been a nice complement to our forward group as well. I'm not too mad about the Lagesson selection however, it was still a solid pick but given that LHD is a position of strength and there was quality goaltenders, a powerforward, a center and a couple of RHD's available I think we could've made a smarter choice. But this is the Oilers and 'smart' isn't in their dictionary. I could go on with the last two picks of the draft as well and how there was, again, much safer choices available at that point but I think I've made my point.

 

[Game 8]

Great post
All of the overages they took last draft shows how they are just mailing it in.
After this draft one area I think would help is signing some established free agents, not the star guys but the secondary ones to shore up all areas. It's the free agents that go under the radar that make the biggest difference and they will sign here. Not sure how to fix the lack of goaltending throughout the organization. We need to draft some possibilities in that area for now!

 

[Tekneek]

Recent drafts have truly been awful, but 1990 is probably the worst of all time. Not 1 of those guys ever got into 1 NHL game.