The Oilers Real Problem

The Oilers have one or two problems, and only one or two problems. Drafting and developing. Oh sure right now they have more than one issue but almost all problems can go all the way back to their drafting history. The Oilers have been terrible in the draft for many years in a row now and I will show you just how terrible. Let's start in 2000.

In Round one the Oilers took Russian Alexi Mikhnov 17th overall. This was a disaster from the start he played only two NHL games with the Oilers. Now take a guess at who was taken right after him. Taken at 18th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins was American defenseman Brooks Orpik. How nice would he look on the Oilers blueline right now? Other guys taken in the first round were Anton Volchenkov, centres Brad Boyes and Steve Ott, Justin Williams, and Nicholas Kronwall. Anyone of those guys would have looked good on the Oilers. This was just the start of a decade of bad drafting by the Oilers.

Fast forward to 2002. The Oilers once again have a pick in the mid first round courtesy of the Montreal Canadiens. At 15th overall the Oilers select Finnish forward Jesse Niinimaki. He spent one year in the then AHL affiliate the Edmonton Roadrunners before going back to the Finnish hockey league. Once again a wasted pick by the Oilers. Players taken after him included Boyd Gordon, Alexander Steen, and Cam Ward.

Staying in 2002 the Oilers then proceeded to draft Jeff Deslauriers and Jarret Stoll in the second round. While both of these made the NHL, they still weren't the best available. Josh Harding went after both of these players as did Duncan Keith at 54th overall. How good would he look on defense right now? Deslauriers didn't do much on the Oilers aside from one season he stuck with the team and had mediocre numbers, and Stoll turned into a decent player but was traded to the Kings.

2003. For this draft I'm just going to put together a list of who the Oilers drafted with their first five picks vs. who they could have drafted.

Who the Oilers Drafted: Marc Antoine Pouliot (22nd), Colin McDonald (51st),  Jean Francois Jacques (68th) , Mikhail Zukov (72nd), Zack Stortini (94th).

Who they Could have Drafted: Ryan Kesler (23rd), Mike Richards (24th), Correy Perry (28th) Loui Eriksson (33rd), Patrice Bergeron (45th), Shea Weber (49th), Corey Crawford (52nd), David Backes (62nd), Jimmy Howard (64th), Clarke Macarthur (74th), Joe Pavelski (205th), Tobias Enstrom (239th), Dustin Byfuglien (245th), .

To make matters worse the Oilers traded away the 17th overall pick which turned into Zach Parise, and if not him there was also even more talent available then. I think it takes more skill for a team to avoid this much talent at the draft then to actually draft it. I realize they couldn't have gotten all or even a lot of these players, but they were all available at some point and it isn't unreasonable that they could have gotten one or two of them at least. The Oilers somehow missed the boat on the deepest draft in a long time in the NHL. They wound up with plugs while other teams were drafting superstars and players who would be playing for a long time. While this may have been the worst example of drafting incompetence by the Oilers, it certainly wasn't the only one.

In 2005 they drafted Cogliano. Yes he did turn into a good player, but they drafted him with players like Niskanen, Neal, and Vlasic on the board. Then in the second round they drafted Taylor Chorney with Abdelkader and Statsny available. Oh yeah and Letang and Quick went 62nd and 72nd overall respectively. Oh and Keith Yandle went 105th overall. Once again the Oilers missed big on a lot of players. Just an added dagger to the heart was Patrick Hornqvist went very last in the draft, 230th overall.

In 2007 Couture went after Gagner did as did Nash, Pacioretty, and Perron. While Gagner looked like a good pick at the time it's once again frustrating for Oilers fans to see superstars going after their picks did at the draft.

These aren't the only examples of the Oilers incompetence at drafting, but just some of the worst. The Oilers could be at the very least a decent team with the talent that they missed out on.A lot of these players are also defensemen and centres. Which are also positions the Oilers need most now. There were also some goalies that went which if they had been picked would mean the Oilers wouldn't have a question mark in net now either.  This also raises the question is the real issue drafting or developing?

I still lean towards drafting because a lot of the players the Oilers missed on have a lot of natural talent to start with. These players wouldn't necessarily need as much coaching and would still turn into a very skilled player. However, the Oilers handling of rookies have left something to be desired as well. What could Gagner have turned into had he been handled better? Maybe he would be a superstar by now. What about Yakupov? Or maybe Nugent-Hopkins would have come a long a lot faster than he did. Nugent-Hopkins is also an example of the natural talent I was talking about. While he wasn't handled the best as a rookie, he still pulled through and became a good player.  I think we can conclude from this that drafting is the biggest problem, but development is also questionable at times.

In conclusion there are many years where the Oilers missed on a lot of talent at the draft. Drafting instead mediocre and sometimes just plain bad players who wouldn't be much help to the team. They missed out on players at key positions who would be a huge help in those spots now. While drafting has been bad the development has been sub-par as well. They have been unable to properly develop the talent they have gotten. It may seem like the Oilers have a lot of problems, but in reality it only comes back to one or two things, one or two things that have been a problem for many, many years.


-Darren


-What do you think the Oilers biggest problem is? Do you agree? Disagree with me? Let me know by commenting below or finding be on twitter @thewildman111