Confirmed with Link: Oilers will be giving up third round pick in Lucic/Neal swap

[GOilers88]

The needle wouldn't move at all. Why it drives me crazy when people go "DUUUUUUUH 1ST OVERALLS RUINED!!!" when the reality is the players just weren't that great in the first place.

What annoys me is Jersey doesn't get hit with the same tag. Hischier is a decent player, but now laughably overpaid and won't be a much better player than Nuge if he even gets to that level. Hughes is off to a good start this year, but if we're being honest with ourselves he isn't going to be much more than a good first liner level talent, but not any kind of franchise defining player. But for them these players weren't considered "ruined" in the hockey lexicon, but just players that aren't that great which should be the same narrative in the Oilers dark days.

If New Jersey stays in the basement for the next decade after several top of draft picks then you have something.

Until then I don't see why anyone would compare them to Edmonton. The Oilers had a solid decade of ineptitude and inability to surround their young picks with proper support. Let's not start pretending this is only a thing bEcAuSe It WaS a WeAk DrAfT cLaSs.

 

[Stoneman89]

Seeing this thread active again, I just figured that the league randomly took away another of our draft picks. Like when you see someone’s name trending on social media and you fear the worst. Glad to see that’s not the case. For now, anyhow.

Bettman saw Holland "give away" a couple of our seconds last year, and decided to give us a break for a couple years, since we did such a good job of turning over picks ourselves.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

If New Jersey stays in the basement for the next decade after several top of draft picks then you have something.

Until then I don't see why anyone would compare them to Edmonton. The Oilers had a solid decade of ineptitude and inability to surround their young picks with proper support. Let's not start pretending this is only a thing bEcAuSe It WaS a WeAk DrAfT cLaSs.

exactly, poor drafting outside of the #1's was a MAJOR problem
picking David Musil and Mitch Moroz (as an example) over skill in the 2nd rounds were terrible
then Tambo, MacT and Chia trading away talent off the roster was a killer....Cogliano, Brodziak, Tom Gilbert, Petry, Dubnyk, Hall, Eberle all traded for peanuts
unfathomable

 

[K1984]

If New Jersey stays in the basement for the next decade after several top of draft picks then you have something.

Until then I don't see why anyone would compare them to Edmonton. The Oilers had a solid decade of ineptitude and inability to surround their young picks with proper support. Let's not start pretending this is only a thing bEcAuSe It WaS a WeAk DrAfT cLaSs.

Yes, the Oilers are bad at surrounding their picks with talent. Just like Jersey.

However, if Jersey had drafted McDavid and Draisaitl instead of Hischier and Hughes I would imagine that it would be pretty easy to see them better than the Oilers with the Jersey players. Also, the Devils have missed the playoffs 8 out of the last 10 years and have had 5 top 7 picks in that time including 2 1st overall, so they are right in the Oilers ineptitude ballpark.

 

[GOilers88]

Yes, the Oilers are bad at surrounding their picks with talent. Just like Jersey.

However, if Jersey had drafted McDavid and Draisaitl instead of Hischier and Hughes I would imagine that it would be pretty easy to see them better than the Oilers with the Jersey players. Also, the Devils have missed the playoffs 8 out of the last 10 years and have had 5 top 7 picks in that time including 2 1st overall, so they are right in the Oilers ineptitude ballpark.

This has moved so far beyond my initial response. I don't feel bad for Edmonton losing a third round pick because the franchise was given (or walked into) 4 first overall picks that most organizations would have found a way to turn into successful teams regardless of whether you think the draft classes sucked or not. It's really irrelevant in my opinion. Anyone with half a f***in brain could have built an even semi competitive team around any combination of Hall/Seguin/Nuge/Landeskog/Murray/Yak.
But we didn't. We pissed away years upon years of young talent in favor of coke machines and piss poor scouting/drafting. I'm not saying they'd have a cup, but they should have been much better than they were with the massive amount of luck they had winning all the lotteries with other top ten picks sprinkled in. Shit 6 years after the best possible golden ticket anyone could have gotten and they're still struggling to do it.

If you think New Jersey since 2017 is somehow a good comparable after 3 years I'm not sure what to say other than I strongly disagree and that I'd have to revisit this in a couple of years when we see where Jersey is at.

Point was I don't think we somehow had bad luck because you think the draft classes sucked. It's a massive stroke of good fortune to have stumbled into what we did and they pissed it all away.

Saying we weren't lucky to draft first so many times because they weren't all super elite players is absolutely silly.

 

[Gordian Knot]

Lucic is bringing it full force on Calgary.

Most of them see him totally useless or even negative.

I bet they are changing their minds of that trade despite getting that 3rd.

How many would do that trade ever again with same conditions...