Did the Oilers make the right draft picks in the last 5 years?

[McKappa]

Personally, I believe that we made great picks.

MPS was a disappointment but lead us to Perron, who's fantastic.

Taylor Hall is most likely the best player in the 2010 draft.

Nuge wasn't great the past 2 years. But he was coming off a shoulder injury and was being played too much, despite this, he still put up 56 points. I expect him to be one of the top 5 centers in the league eventually.

Yakupov had a horrible sophomore slump, but is by far the most talented player in the 2012 draft, I still fully expect him to be the best too.

Nurse was a great pick at 7th, but there where some better choices picked after him.

Click to read more...

 

[Patchey*]

I feel the picks were right. They just need time to develop. This is coming from a Canuck fan

 

[RipsADrive]

The first round picks were the correct ones, even Yakupov.

It's rounds 2-7 that are more of a problem.

 

[ManByng]

^yup, although our scouts have gotten us players with size, grit and various levels of skill like McCarron, C. Hamilton, Chase, Yakimov, Moroz, Khaira, Roy and d-men like Musil, Marincin and Simpson, so we'll soon see what kind of job they have done in rounds 2-7 the last 4 or so drafts when/if some of these guys make the NHL club.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

The first round picks were all pretty standard. There wasn't much room for discussion on any of them.

 

[Magnum23]

The picks were fine any team would be happy to have any of those players except maybe PRV. Problem was they never got any one to compliment their skilled picks. Hendricks and the new goalies is a good start but we now need a big centre and a stud d.

 

[ManByng]

^we need to sign a UFA center like Stastny or Legwand or Boyle or Bolland or Grabovski or Ott....1 or 2 guys like these. they all have a variety of size, grit and skill. also d-men like Markov or Niskanen (who i'd go after if we can't acquire a true #1 d-man), and vets that can fill a void until Klefbom, Simpson, Musil and Nurse are ready like Engelland, Derek Morris, Orpik, or Kyle Quincey. a few of these players are who the Oilers should be targeting this summer.

 

[Philly85*]

I think they're the right choices it just hasn't worked out thus far. RNH I can see becoming a complete stud but that it won't manifest for 2 maybe 3 more years. Have to pray he doesn't get injured again. Hall was definitely the right pick and so was Yakupov for that matter but it's just going to take a little longer with Yak.

 

[landy92mack29]

Personally, I believe that we made great picks.

MPS was a disappointment but lead us to Perron, who's fantastic.

Taylor Hall is most likely the best player in the 2010 draft.

Nuge wasn't great the past 2 years. But he was coming off a shoulder injury and was being played too much, despite this, he still put up 56 points. I expect him to be one of the top 5 centers in the league eventually.

Yakupov had a horrible sophomore slump, but is by far the most talented player in the 2012 draft, I still fully expect him to be the best too.

Nurse was a great pick at 7th, but there where some better choices picked after him.

2010 hall or seguin couldn't go wrong
2011 rnh will be good and I'm happy landeskog went to my avs
2012 should've took murray or galchenyuk instead of yakapov
2013 nurse will be a solid top 4, maybe 1st pair
2014 ekblad is a franchise d-man so they should try and trade up, if not draisatl will be a good fit. gagner would be traded then I'm guessing

 

[Mr Forever]

The drafting has been good, not great, but good. The development has been poor.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I'm not sure about the Nurse pick as it's a bit too early. I think that we took the guy with the highest upside in Yak, I just hope that he realizes that upside. I believe that the Hall and RNH picks were the best picks for this team then and now.

 

[Gone]

It is not the first overall picks that are the issue, its the rest of the first round and the other picks.

Taylor vs Tyler, the debate is still on, but our need was clearly center ice.
RNH or Land's, we had no choice here because of the Taylor choice.
Yakupov, I wanted Galchenyuk, others wanted Murray. In my mind this was a mistake, and Yakupov will be gone from the NHL in a few years.
Nurse, well this was a tough one, but there were several others available at this spot and until Nurse shows what he can accomplish at the next level we just wont know. Even Stauffer at the time was hinting at Nichushkin, which was likely the best pick at that spot.

 

[Moose Coleman]

All the first overalls were perfectly defensible, including the Yak pick. Murray is ok, but having him the last two years wouldn't have made a difference. Galchenyuk was injured is whole draft year, would have been a huge gamble at first overall and he still hasn't accomplished much more than Yak. Nurse is too son to tell, even if Nichushkin is a stud right now.

 

[Still DRAI]

Galchenyuk also had a fairly mediocre year after a hot start and playing on a much better team than the Oilers. There's plenty of promise, and he has the bigness and the centerness that everyone looks for, but we'd be in exactly the same boat if we'd taken a huge risk and drafted him first overall.

 

[McShogun99]

Musil is the only bad pick that the scouts have made in the last 5 years IMO. The 1st round picks were all no brainers.

 

[sepHF]

I'm more worried about their ability to develop these picks

 

[MettleMcOiler]

yes....but I feel player development is suspect...especially the early years of the rebuild. I'm worried for our forwards offence under Eakins....especially Yakupovs.

I'm sure many oiler fans have their doubts and have the "the grass is always greener on the other side mentality" but seriously...oilers grass is really really really green, especially defence.

 

[McDNicks17]

I'm still a big fan of the Nurse pick.

I think Nichushkin is overrated. He had the same amount of points as Paajarvi in his rookie year, but he was playing with an 84 point center and a 79 point winger for most of the season. Like Paajarvi, he seems like a tools over substance guy to me. Good player, but just being in the NHL earlier doesn't mean he'll be better in the long run.

 

[Soundwave]

I was thinking about Galchenyuk just because he was a center, but I think it's virtually impossible to draft someone at no.1 when he's only played like 6 games in his draft year due to injury. No GM in this league would've made that pick IMO. It's much easier to take him at no.3.

That said, he's not exactly lighting the world on fire in Montreal either.

Ryan Murray over Yakupov is debatable, but lets be honest, Murray would probably be -20 here and going through a lot of growing pains too with a d-corps this make shift and we got our LD prospect the following year in Nurse anyway.

 

[Petes2424]

Personally, I believe that we made great picks.

MPS was a disappointment but lead us to Perron, who's fantastic.

Taylor Hall is most likely the best player in the 2010 draft.

Nuge wasn't great the past 2 years. But he was coming off a shoulder injury and was being played too much, despite this, he still put up 56 points. I expect him to be one of the top 5 centers in the league eventually.

Yakupov had a horrible sophomore slump, but is by far the most talented player in the 2012 draft, I still fully expect him to be the best too.

Nurse was a great pick at 7th, but there where some better choices picked after him.

I've always been a firm believer on building your team from the net out. It's much easier done in lessor leagues of course and at the NHL level, in the last ten years or so, I've wavered on that a bit as we've seen such a variance in goaltenders and when they either mature or if they ever do. I still maintain though, unless you're able to get a franchise C, you still draft on the blueline most importantly. If you have a choice between a 10-12 year top pairing guy, compared to a 25/25 wing, I'm taking the D.

Having said that, I was all about drafting Murray. Especially having been around Sarnia so much for years. It's nothing against Yak but I'm huge on character also and there were just a bunch of little things I didn't care for. I would've drafted Galchenyuk over Yak and said so for that entire year, injured or not.

What drafting Murray would've done is completely opened up last years draft. The Oilers were almost backed up against the wall into drafting Nurse. Although I like him, I'm still not convinced he's a ten year guy. I would've taken Nichushkin because I didn't feel there was a blueliner at 7 who was a difference maker and thought Nichushkin was possibly the best player in the draft. When he fell to 7, it was a slam dunk for me.

Murray was one, if not the most refined, smooth CHL guys I'd ever watched. Drafting him would've opened up all these other options for the Oilers.

So, in long form, no. I don't think they made the right choices. It's water under the bridge now though.

 

[Hockey Buddha]

I've always been a firm believer on building your team from the net out. It's much easier done in lessor leagues of course and at the NHL level, in the last ten years or so, I've wavered on that a bit as we've seen such a variance in goaltenders and when they either mature or if they ever do. I still maintain though, unless you're able to get a franchise C, you still draft on the blueline most importantly. If you have a choice between a 10-12 year top pairing guy, compared to a 25/25 wing, I'm taking the D.

Having said that, I was all about drafting Murray. Especially having been around Sarnia so much for years. It's nothing against Yak but I'm huge on character also and there were just a bunch of little things I didn't care for. I would've drafted Galchenyuk over Yak and said so for that entire year, injured or not.

What drafting Murray would've done is completely opened up last years draft. The Oilers were almost backed up against the wall into drafting Nurse. Although I like him, I'm still not convinced he's a ten year guy. I would've taken Nichushkin because I didn't feel there was a blueliner at 7 who was a difference maker and thought Nichushkin was possibly the best player in the draft. When he fell to 7, it was a slam dunk for me.

Murray was one, if not the most refined, smooth CHL guys I'd ever watched. Drafting him would've opened up all these other options for the Oilers.

So, in long form, no. I don't think they made the right choices. It's water under the bridge now though.

Interesting post, Petes2424. Galchenyuk piqued my interest at the draft too, but Yakupov was on fire in his season without him, so I think that I would have given the nod to Yakupov anyhow. I quite expected the Oilers to take Ryan Murray, but fans would have revolted at the time, if the Oilers hadn't selected Yakupov. Yakupov was pretty much the consensus no. 1 in 2012, and he'll be more than fine, once he gets some more experience and figures out his game under Eakins. To me, the Oilers went with the conventional wisdom at the time of each draft, so it's not like they went off the board at all or reached for a player. I really don't have any issues with their first round picks. We just have to wait on them, as the go from surviving to thriving in this league. As for the Darnell Nurse pick, I'm completely sold. He's just a terrific kid, who is going to have a huge impact in solidifying our blueline in a few years.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

You can't draft a kid first overall whos already had major reconstructive knee surgery before 18 imo.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

Here's a quote that I found especially relevant. There's no way we could ever have justified not taking Yakupov.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=50939413&postcount=142

For the hell of it I looked up a few of the various ranking services (note to the mods... found all these ranks listed online (including on NHL.com so I'm not violating any copyrights here).


Here's 12 various ranking lists:

A Craig Button
B Bob Mackenzie (aggregate of ~10 NHL scouts)
C ISS
D MyNHLDraft
E Future Considerations
F NHL Central Scouting
G Redline Report
H Hockey Prospectus
I The Scouting Report
J The Hockey Writers
K The Hockey News
L McKeen’s Hockey


Yakupov
A 1
B 1
C 1
D 1
E 1
F 1 NA skater
G 1
H 1
I 1
J 1
K 1
L 1
Average: 1.0

Forsberg
A 7
B 4
C 2
D 5
E 5
F 1 Euro Skater
G 2
H 4
I 2
J 5
K 2
L 3
Ave: 3.5

Murray
A 13
B 3
C 3
D 2
E 3
F 2 NA Skater
G 4
H 8
I 4
J 3
K 4
L 4
Ave: 4.42

Galchenyuk
A 4
B 6
C 14
D 3
E 2
F 4 NA Skater
G 6
H 3
I 3
J 6
K 7
L 2
Ave: 5.0

Grigorenko
A 20
B 2
C 4
D 4
E 4
F 3 NA Skater
G 8
H 2
I 5
J 4
K 3
L 9
Ave: 5.67

Dumba
A 2
B 5
C 6
D 6
E 10
F 11 NA Skater
G 3
H 6
I 7
J 2
K 5
L 6
Ave: 5.75

Rielly
A 3
B 9
C 7
D 9
E 9
F 5 NA Skater
G 7
H 7
I 6
J 8
K 6
L 8
Ave: 7.0

Teravainen
A 5
B 10
C 8
D 8
E 8
F 2 Euro Skater
G 5
H 5
I 11
J 7
K 12
L 5
Ave: 7.17

Reinhart
A 6
B 8
C 10
D 7
E 7
F 10 NA Skater
G 9
H 15
I 10
J 9
K 8
L 7
Ave: 8.83

Trouba
A 12
B 7
C 5
D 10
E 6
F 9 NA Skater
G 11
H 12
I 9
J 13
K 9
L 10
Ave: 9.42



Notice a common trend with Yakupov compared to everyone else?


He's CLEARLY and unanimously the #1 pick. It's not even close to being close. When you do hear someone say something about the gap between Yak and the rest of the pack they sometimes say the gap isn't as big as some suggest, but literally NO reputable source says that there isn't a gap there... large or small it certainly exists as he's the CLEAR #1.

I've watched the guy play... I can SEE that gap with my own eyes in the way he plays the game. He has "IT"... and you don't even have to take any of those professional rankings into account if you actually watch him play and see what type of skills and talent he has.

When you include mock lists and other less well publicized ranking lists... you find that it's still almost 100% unanimous for Yakupov at #1. You have to look hard to find someone who says he's not #1.. and the few mocks that have Yakupov at #2 are only doing so because they think the Oilers need a dman badly... not because Yakupov is the #2 prospect.

140 decibel bullhorn to the ears of Lowe, Tambo and Co:...

"Pick the obviously most talented player and be damn glad you have him."

 

[McDoused]

I'm still a big fan of the Nurse pick.

I think Nichushkin is overrated. He had the same amount of points as Paajarvi in his rookie year, but he was playing with an 84 point center and a 79 point winger for most of the season. Like Paajarvi, he seems like a tools over substance guy to me. Good player, but just being in the NHL earlier doesn't mean he'll be better in the long run.

I completely agree about Nurse. I think Nurse is a guy who brings a lot of character to an organization and prepares like a pro. Nichushkin might be the "better player" but I think Nurae would bring more value to the team.

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

For me C is most important.

Build C -> Build D -> Build G

That being said I'm fine with all their decisions. They happened to tank in years not teeming with C's.

Hall to me is a bit different as well. To me there are only 5 forwards in the league I take over him. Crosby, Malkin, Tavares, Stamkos and Toews and 2 only because of positional importance (Tavares and Toews).

To me we've improved in drafting and development since the tank and continue the upwars trend imo.

I hope we remain the Russian friendly franchise as well, could pay dividends long term.