[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

2010: Starting over from scratch with rebuild 2.0. A probable #1 C was on the board, and that's a more valuable building block than a winger, just because of versatility. You can move Seguin to the wing a lot easier than you can move Hall to centre. In terms of pure skill and talent, the players appeared to be pretty much equal. The Oilers bungled by taking the player at the less valuable position.

Retrospect. There's a reason the Oilers tank was called the "Fall for Taylor Hall" that year. Hall was the right pick, and he turned into a valuable player. Seguin being a center doesn't mean anyone knew he would become what he has.

2011: Either Huberdeau or Landeskog would have been an excellent #1 pick, but the Oilers already had Hall and desperately needed a centre for his line. So they went with Nugent-Hopkins, a rather weak #1 pick. (Huberdeau was listed at C at the time, but does seem to be settling in nicely as a winger, so I'm guessing that he was projected as a winger by many scouts.)

Nah, Nugent-Hopkins is still probably the most valuable player from that draft not named Johnny Gaudreau. RNH can still play wing, what he was drafted for were things like his vision and puck skills. Where they went wrong with him, is they didn't develop him physically because they rushed him into #1C duties in the NHL. I'm pretty convinced he still weighs less than 19 year old Sam Bennett.

Also they drafted Klefbom with their other first that year, worth noting. That was a good draft for them.

2012: In a weak draft with no consensus #1, the smart thing would have been for the Oilers to use positional need as a tie-breaker. That would have landed them with Murray. Instead, they took another forward, who has turned out to be a solid disappointment.

Yakupov was a disappointment. But If I were an Oilers fan I would have been very happy right now with Alex Galchenyuk or Filip Forsberg especially if they employed a patient development plan.

2013: Since they didn't take a defenceman the previous year, the Oilers tried to correct that by going after Darnell Nurse. Nichushkin was still on the board, and arguably the BPA at #7; certainly the most skilled player available.

Rasmus Ristolainen was arguably the BPA at #7. Hockey sense was a knock on Nurse since the beginning. Ristolainen oozes hockey sense.

2014: Since the Oilers picked RNH to try to make up for not picking Seguin, they were stuck with an undersized and under-physical #1 C. So they picked Draisaitl at #3 overall, because he was slightly more physically mature than Sam Bennett – a terrible reason to pick one 18-year-old ahead of another. Draisaitl is working out reasonably well for them, but the consensus seems to be that Bennett has the better overall tools.

We don't know that that's the reason. Draisaitl has some great tools and we've already seen him play at a very high level for stretches this year, a level we'll be stoked if Bennett reaches within the next two years.