Quote:
Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary
not quite... 7 top 6 picks in 7 years, is pretty much the worst i've seen... Pittsburgh had 5 years of top 6 picks, but only 2 #1s and 2 #2s in grouping...
the islanders only had 4 years with top 6 picks, and only Tavares was number 1. Ditto with Chicago.
Oilers are the team that has taken advantage of the NHL Welfare system the most...
with that kind of support, that franchise HAD to get better, regardless of how bad they are.
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But Pittsburgh also got extremely lucky in that they were terrible in strong draft years- at least at the top end- and were essentially able to add a Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal) despite drafting 2nd overall, and not 1st like the Oilers.
The Islanders were a bottom-5 team every season from 2007-2012, and aside from an aberrant 2013 shortened season which saw them in the playoffs, finished bottom-5 yet again in 2014. Of course, their clown management were/are just as bad as MacT and Snow ended up trading down from pick 5 to 7 in 08 when they drafted Bailey. They saw tremendous growth between 2014 and 2015 because Snow finally addressed some needs on D and net (Leddy, Boychuk, Halak) just like Chiarelli did for Edmonton (Sekera, Larsson, Russell, Talbot)
Also, I don't see a major difference between 5 years of ineptitude vs 6 or 7. Just like Pens fans forgot all about it circa 2007, Oilers fans are forgetting in 2017.
PS: Not defending the Oilers organization. I just don't think they should be singled out. The Penguins and Islanders deserve just as much ire if we're being objective.