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

[Petes2424]

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.

Nurse has come a long way this year. It's nice to have a coach who's more about the kids and their advancement. Good things happening in the Soo. And yea, I was revolted against just suggesting Murray should be the pick, and I'm just a random internet guy.

In regards to Yak, it's funny. At all levels, sometimes you just don't understand how outside perceptions come about. Almost everyone to a man who has anything to do with the Sting, would've told you Alex was the better player. Everyone outside would say Yak. I just find it completely hard to believe some teams even at the NHL level, ignore certain things because it's not what they wanna hear. On the flip side though, take a kid like Krug. We all knew he was the smartest, hardest working kid around but even people who believed in him really didn't and it cost him opportunities. It was always thought that Fowler just always made him look better, etc. Even when they weren't on the same team anymore, there was always excuses why Krug always played well instead of concluding he was actually good.

It ultimately comes down to opportunity. Scouting and player evaluations will vary depending on philosophies, etc. Guys like Yak have always been given those opportunities (because of pure skill) and guys like Galchenyuk had to fight more for those same opportunities. In a lot of ways, I'll always take those guys first and knowing some of the struggles he had already overcome, I preferred him. I believe it makes them better players. That's not to say Yak won't fight through these struggles. My concern is, he's never really had to. He does have all the talent in the world though. We shall see.

Some of these same reasons are why I favor Bennett. He's been discounted numerous times and all he does is go out there and get better every game. Compete level goes a long way the higher the level of play. I think it's discounted to often.

We'll see what happens.

 

[thadd]

It looks like we should have taken Trouba over Yakupov, but at the draft table that would have been insane and we would have been flaming our organization till the cows came home if they'd done such.

In short, we made all the right picks.

I was so excited that Magnus was available. He was ranked much higher by ISS before the draft and he got us Perron.

Hall was the best player at that draft and I wasn't interested in Seguin because I bought into the hype (which was true) that Hall was the much more driven player.

Lando is my favourite player from his draft class but we needed a center and Hopkins was by far considered the best guy to pick at that draft.

 

[kurtcobang]

Cant wait until next year when Yak scores 25/25/50 and all the haters are back on his jock talking about limitless potential and what a great pick he was.

 

[Speed220DChalavan]

Cant wait until next year when Yak scores 25/25/50 and all the haters are back on his jock talking about limitless potential and what a great pick he was.

The average sports fan is so fickle, and operates with a "what have you done for me lately?" mentality.

We've seen flashes of Yakupov's talent. Inconsistency, and ebbs and flows are part of the development. This year, Yakupov was also hurt by poor puck luck (save % when on ice, shooting % fell remarkably).

His ceiling remains high. Development isn't linear.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

Should've gone:



Tyler Seguin
Gabriel Landeskog
Ryan Murray

 

[Rawg]

Should've gone:



Tyler Seguin
Gabriel Landeskog
Ryan Murray

Doesnt matter what picks we interchange, we would still be bad, the failures of this team arent on them. A first line of Lando/Seguin/??? with murray on d is just as bad/worse then Hall/RNH/Yakupov

 

[Oi'll say!]

I know Hall is super popular here, he should be, but IMO we would still have been better off if we had taken Seguin.

If we had Seguin then the next year we would have taken Larsson or Landeskog, I'd love to say that I would have gone for Landy but I don't know. I didn't really spend much time thinking about those guys because all I wanted was a center at that point (Huberdeau lol). Ideally Landeskog.

Yak's year we could have taken Ryan Murray.

Would Seguin, Landy, Murray be better than who we have? The Oilers would be better defensively and our offense wouldn't suffer.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

Doesnt matter what picks we interchange, we would still be bad, the failures of this team arent on them. A first line of Lando/Seguin/??? with murray on d is just as bad/worse then Hall/RNH/Yakupov

Seguin/Landeskog/Murray are more complete players than Hall/RNH/Yakupov.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

I know Hall is super popular here, he should be, but IMO we would still have been better off if we had taken Seguin.

If we had Seguin then the next year we would have taken Larsson or Landeskog, I'd love to say that I would have gone for Landy but I don't know. I didn't really spend much time thinking about those guys because all I wanted was a center at that point (Huberdeau lol). Ideally Landeskog.

Yak's year we could have taken Ryan Murray.

Would Seguin, Landy, Murray be better than who we have? The Oilers would be better defensively and our offense wouldn't suffer.

Seguin-Number 1 centerman

Landy-Grit/size in the top six.


Murray-Top 2 defenseman




I'm starting to think that the Oilers have messed up.

 

[Panda Bear]

Should not have made the 2007 #21 trade with #30 and #36 so that we could have gone Couture/Pacioretty/Subban/Simmonds/Benn.

Could you imagine how tough a line up of Benn-Couture-Simmonds would be? Oh, wait--this is stupid to play 'what if'.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

I still remember when I was posting on how RNH was(and still is) a question mark due to his small statue,and fans on here sending ridiculous personal shots at me for bringing it up.


Fast forward to this season, he is still showing that he is a weak centerman.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

I would take Tyler Seguin over RNH any day of the week or year.


Tyler Seguin can handle the big centermen and RNH struggles considerably when dealing with this task.

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

It's too bad that Peter Chiarelli didn't except that deal in 2010, for Jordan Eberle and Ales Hemsky.



I believe it was:

Jordan Eberle
Ales Hemsky


for

2nd overall pick

 

[Panda Bear]

I still remember when I was posting on how RNH was(and still is) a question mark due to his small statue,and fans on here sending ridiculous personal shots at me for bringing it up.


Fast forward to this season, he is still showing that he is a weak centerman.

I won't send personal shots at you, but I do think it would have been stupid to choose anyone over RNH in the 2011 NHL Draft.

All I need to do is look at his rookie season pre-injury to know that he's the best player available. If he got derailed for a couple seasons because of shoulder complications stemming from junior hockey, that's fine as long as he ends up being the best player in his draft.

Landeskog's build and style will always have meant that he was able to get off to a better NHL start, but I don't think that there will be any comparison a few years from now. RNH's skillset and intelligence just outstrip everyone else's in his draft--he just needs his body to catch up to everything else.

I can understand the appeal of Landeskog-Seguin-Eberle with Murray as our top pairing defenceman, but we'd have been rolling a second line of Perron-Gagner-Hemsky this past season. We'd still be having the "we can't have a small second line centre who's not good enough" discussion, we'd be worried about our future for secondary scoring, and we'd be kicking ourselves to watch players like Hall, Yakupov, and RNH go on to be more successful because they got to be in the right team environment.

Our problem is development first and foremost.

Tyler Seguin can handle the big centermen and RNH struggles considerably when dealing with this task.

That's not true.

RNH does just fine playing against people like Getzlaf, Toews and Kopitar because of his intelligence, balance, and stickwork. The problem is driving play forward again, and you can start to look towards the Edmonton Oilers having far worse system play and execution than other teams.

Dallas has had real coaching this past year, and I don't think you should dismiss how huge of an impact that Jamie Benn, who can do everything including battle and play physical, has had for Seguin.

 

[McDNicks17]

Love these threads.

 

[Paralyzer008]

We made the correct first round picks EXCEPT the jury is out for 2013 IMO. Nurse and Nichushkin are both quality and that type of big forward isn't present in our system.

The rest? Sketchy, although Marincin is a player for sure.

 

[Tarus]

There is nothing wrong with the picks.

Hall has now scored at a better than PPG pace two years in a row and is well on his way to being one of the best wingers in the NHL. RNH/Yakupov look considerable weaker players in upside, but both have also had extenuating circumstances that have slowed their ability to positively impact the team. Even drafting in hindsight, they both came from weak draft years where there weren't other options that would have improved much of anything

The problems are with the team surrounding them, the franchise's ability to develop players, the coaching, and the people making the decisions upstairs.

 

[Panda Bear]

We made the correct first round picks EXCEPT the jury is out for 2013 IMO. Nurse and Nichushkin are both quality and that type of big forward isn't present in our system.

The rest? Sketchy, although Marincin is a player for sure.

I wonder how Nichushkin would have fared being stuck on our fourth line due to the right wing logjam we had this past season.

Our top six is fine save for the second-line centre going forward. Nichushkin may have great puck protection due to his size, skating and stickhandling (and this puck protection comes from skating with the puck rather than boardplay), but I don't see how he would have been a fit. Before Perron? Yes. After Perron? No.

 

[Panda Bear]

There is nothing wrong with the picks.

Hall has now scored at a better than PPG pace two years in a row and is well on his way to being one of the best wingers in the NHL. RNH/Yakupov look considerable weaker players in upside, but both have also had extenuating circumstances that have slowed their ability to positively impact the team. Even drafting in hindsight, they both came from weak draft years where there weren't other options that would have improved much of anything

The problems are with the team surrounding them, the franchise's ability to develop players, the coaching, and the people making the decisions upstairs.

I don't think that RNH is coming from a weak draft year. I think that RNH is coming from a weak body, and it's going to be interesting to see how he emerges from that.

As for Yakupov, he was being proclaimed the best prospect since Crosby before his ankle injury in his draft season. Is he? No, definitely not. But when you watch him, you can just feel that as soon as he understands the rhythm of the NHL--how to get into the right space at the right time--he'll just destroy it.

The only trick is if he'll ever be able to feel that rhythm the way that Stamkos, Hull, Ovechkin, and other top snipers feel it. It's not about driving the play, but finding the play. That's why Yak works well with Hall.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Had we picked Seguin in '10 I still would've taken RNH in '11.

 

[Rawg]

Seguin/Landeskog/Murray are more complete players than Hall/RNH/Yakupov.

How good do you think we would be with them?

 

[GretzkytoKurri9917]

How good do you think we would be with them?

Not dead last in the west,I'll tell you what!

 

[Bryanbryoil]

How good do you think we would be with them?

Add to that, do you think they'd be the same players they are today had we taken them and they played for our team? How would Seguin have handled the savior role that was heaped onto Taylor Hall's shoulders? How would Landeskog have done being centered by Gagner or Horcoff? How would Murray's confidence be playing in front of Dubnyk and Labarbara this season, his first in the NHL?

 

[Philly85*]

Had we picked Seguin in '10 I still would've taken RNH in '11.

Absolutely

 

[Paralyzer008]

I wonder how Nichushkin would have fared being stuck on our fourth line due to the right wing logjam we had this past season.

Our top six is fine save for the second-line centre going forward. Nichushkin may have great puck protection due to his size, skating and stickhandling (and this puck protection comes from skating with the puck rather than boardplay), but I don't see how he would have been a fit. Before Perron? Yes. After Perron? No.

Well actually, he shoots left, so he could play LW or RW, similar to Yak (although Yak seems to rather play RW and this year it was the same for Valeri)

He would have been a solid 3rd line fit, but I guess part of his good year was because he'd create space for Benn and Seguin.

I like Nurse, that's why I said we'll see. Nurse should have made Team Canada, he was snubbed, I haven't seen him live since rookie camp where his skating was awesome but everything else was still raw. I'm excited to see him develop here.