Oilers 2010 draft revisited with Jerk Hindsight Goggles (tm)
Posted 12:57 PM ET | Comments 1
Earlier this year, I wrote that the 2010 NHL entry draft might have been the best in recent Oilers history. Now it's time to torment ourselves with terrible hindsight and pick out exactly what sucked about it.
Remember kids: hindsight is 20/20, as rounds go on you generally are looking for organizational needs and all of these kids are still only 21. Still, here comes the pain train.
1st overall
Who we selected: Taylor Hall
Who we could have selected: Tyler Seguin, Mikael Grandlund, Ryan Johansen
Who we should have selected: Taylor Hall
I'll be bold and say that we made the right choice here. Or, at least in the vindictive spirit of this blog, we didn't make the wrong choice. Hall has become a consistent point per game player, looks like he's settled into a rugged play-style with spurts of solid possession and has burgeoning back-checking instincts. He's a franchise player for the oilers that only one other player has shown he could be by now: Tyler Seguin. Both have been checkered in terms of supposed attitude: Seguin has played the lead in the Great Boston Playoff Hotel Escape and was traded for it, and this year Hall invited his coach to join him in an impromptu wet t-shirt contest. So all things considered it's tough to have regrets about the choice that kicked the Lottery days off.
31st overall
Who we selected: Tyler Pitlick
Who we could have selected: The 'coulds' here come from the players selected between 31st and 46th overall, when we picked next. Justin Faulk, Devante Smith-Pelley are the two that jump out.
Who we should have selected: Devante Smith-Pelley. I still have high hope for Tyler Pitlick to be an effective 3rd and 4th liner, if he can get healthy. The guy plays with an intensity that punches way against his weight class, and his own body suffers for it with a slew of tough injuries. All the same, Smith-Pelley provides the bang that Pitlick can with an offensive production that to date far outstrips him. There's a power forward lite in the making there and while Pitlick is a better technical defender, that's less useful than it was on the day he was drafted since he's switched permanently off of centre.
It's interesting to remember that Pitlick was drafted as a potential 2-3 centre. It's funny that people misremember that the Oilers were trying to build with talent down the middle, with Gagner, Riley Nash(21st overall) and Lander coming before the Pitlick pick and Martindale -- and of course the Nuge -- coming after. Fault them for the picks not panning out, but the idea that the Oil neglected centres is revisionist history.
46th overall, 48th overall
Who we selected: Martin Marincin, Curtis Hamilton
Who we could have selected: Tyler Toffoli, Jason Zucker
Who we should have selected: Toffoli, then Marincin. Here's where things get to be extreme in terms of guesswork. First off, I say Smithy-Pelley over Pitlick instead of Faulk over Pitlick, because we end up getting our man Marincin. Second, Marincin may be the superior talent in the long run. But my gambit is that if we take Toffoli, Los Angeles (who recently had drafted Doughty, Teuebert and in the first round Fobort) passes on Marincin. With the 48th pick we're free to take Marincin, who's been thouroughly superior to Hamilton. With Smith-Pelley in the fold, Hamilton's skillset is covered.
61st overall
Who we selected: Ryan Martindale
Who we could have selected: Max Reinhart, Radko Gudas
Who we should have selected: Gudas. Martindale was a lemon. He had the potential to be a physical force, but he never put the work in. Well, Gudas IS a physical force on D and plays with maturity beyond his years. Reinhart ahead of Martindale, but both firmly behind Gudas.
91st overall
Who we selected: Jeremie Blain
Who we could have selected: Teemu Pulkkinen
Who we should have selected: Teemu Pulkkinen. Blain is a perfect example of why the Oilers don't venture out to the Q often. While Brandon Davidson battled back from cancer and was a coach's dream, Jeremie Blain was suspended in his post-draft year for using racial slurs and in a numbers crunch, was cut loose before he ever got going. Pulkkinen was drafted 20 spots later so the Oilers aren't alone in their short-sightedness, but he was a much higer-round talent who fell because of injury and he wouldn't have been a stretch at 91. Missed opportunity for the right kind of homerun pick.
121st overall
Who we selected: Tyler Bunz
Who we could have selected: Brendan Gallagher
Who we should have selected: guess. Gallagher is an amazing late-round find for the Habs who lacks size, but makes up for it with all kinds of what the Oil could use right now.
162nd overall
Who we selected: Brandon Davidson
Who we could have selected: Konrad Abeltshauser
Who we should have selected: Davidson. Abeltshauser is a rangy two-way guy drafted from the Mooseheads, so I'd love for the Oilers to have drafted him, but it's not clear he's particularly better than Davidson. Davidson is steady-eddy, and is a longshot for the NHL while Abeltshauser is very toolsy and is completely boom-or-bust. Where neither has a good chance as of right now to be an impact NHLer, tie goes to the runner.
166th overall
Who we selected: Drew Czerwonka
Who we could have selected: Mark Stone
Who we should have selected: Stone. Czerwonka is already come and gone, and Mark Stone has done something most 6th round guys don't do: play in the NHL.
181st overall
Who we selected: Kristian Pelss
Who we could have selected: Frederik Andersen
Who we should have selected: Andersen, probably. He's a potential tandem guy in the NHL who's had varying splits at the NHL level. Pelss may not have ever been an NHLer, but it feels dirty straying from him. He didn't do a thing wrong in his development.
202nd overall
Who we selected: Kellen Jones
Who we could have selected: Riley Boychuk, Brendan Ranford
Who we should have selected: At this point, let's make a headline. The Oilers draft the third Boychuk sibling, or better yet: the Oil draft Bill Ranford's nephew Brendan. In fact, given the old boys club, I'm surprised the Oilers resisted. Actually, we traded a 2011 6th for this pick (which ended up the first pick of that round) for this 7th - the 9th last pick of the draft. my redraft suggestion is to not do that.
So the new draft class is Hall, Smith-Pelley, Toffoli, Marincin, Gudas, Pulkkinen, Gallagher, Davidson, Stone, Andersen and who cares. Note that unlike our actual selections, I didn't draft a centre, but I did draft 3 dmen and a goalie, just like we had planned. Using hindsight, it's a better draft than we had by far, but looking back actually confirmed what I concluded earlier about the wealth of talent the Oilers did manage to find in that draft.
Remember kids: hindsight is 20/20, as rounds go on you generally are looking for organizational needs and all of these kids are still only 21. Still, here comes the pain train.
1st overall
Who we selected: Taylor Hall
Who we could have selected: Tyler Seguin, Mikael Grandlund, Ryan Johansen
Who we should have selected: Taylor Hall
I'll be bold and say that we made the right choice here. Or, at least in the vindictive spirit of this blog, we didn't make the wrong choice. Hall has become a consistent point per game player, looks like he's settled into a rugged play-style with spurts of solid possession and has burgeoning back-checking instincts. He's a franchise player for the oilers that only one other player has shown he could be by now: Tyler Seguin. Both have been checkered in terms of supposed attitude: Seguin has played the lead in the Great Boston Playoff Hotel Escape and was traded for it, and this year Hall invited his coach to join him in an impromptu wet t-shirt contest. So all things considered it's tough to have regrets about the choice that kicked the Lottery days off.
31st overall
Who we selected: Tyler Pitlick
Who we could have selected: The 'coulds' here come from the players selected between 31st and 46th overall, when we picked next. Justin Faulk, Devante Smith-Pelley are the two that jump out.
Who we should have selected: Devante Smith-Pelley. I still have high hope for Tyler Pitlick to be an effective 3rd and 4th liner, if he can get healthy. The guy plays with an intensity that punches way against his weight class, and his own body suffers for it with a slew of tough injuries. All the same, Smith-Pelley provides the bang that Pitlick can with an offensive production that to date far outstrips him. There's a power forward lite in the making there and while Pitlick is a better technical defender, that's less useful than it was on the day he was drafted since he's switched permanently off of centre.
It's interesting to remember that Pitlick was drafted as a potential 2-3 centre. It's funny that people misremember that the Oilers were trying to build with talent down the middle, with Gagner, Riley Nash(21st overall) and Lander coming before the Pitlick pick and Martindale -- and of course the Nuge -- coming after. Fault them for the picks not panning out, but the idea that the Oil neglected centres is revisionist history.
46th overall, 48th overall
Who we selected: Martin Marincin, Curtis Hamilton
Who we could have selected: Tyler Toffoli, Jason Zucker
Who we should have selected: Toffoli, then Marincin. Here's where things get to be extreme in terms of guesswork. First off, I say Smithy-Pelley over Pitlick instead of Faulk over Pitlick, because we end up getting our man Marincin. Second, Marincin may be the superior talent in the long run. But my gambit is that if we take Toffoli, Los Angeles (who recently had drafted Doughty, Teuebert and in the first round Fobort) passes on Marincin. With the 48th pick we're free to take Marincin, who's been thouroughly superior to Hamilton. With Smith-Pelley in the fold, Hamilton's skillset is covered.
61st overall
Who we selected: Ryan Martindale
Who we could have selected: Max Reinhart, Radko Gudas
Who we should have selected: Gudas. Martindale was a lemon. He had the potential to be a physical force, but he never put the work in. Well, Gudas IS a physical force on D and plays with maturity beyond his years. Reinhart ahead of Martindale, but both firmly behind Gudas.
91st overall
Who we selected: Jeremie Blain
Who we could have selected: Teemu Pulkkinen
Who we should have selected: Teemu Pulkkinen. Blain is a perfect example of why the Oilers don't venture out to the Q often. While Brandon Davidson battled back from cancer and was a coach's dream, Jeremie Blain was suspended in his post-draft year for using racial slurs and in a numbers crunch, was cut loose before he ever got going. Pulkkinen was drafted 20 spots later so the Oilers aren't alone in their short-sightedness, but he was a much higer-round talent who fell because of injury and he wouldn't have been a stretch at 91. Missed opportunity for the right kind of homerun pick.
121st overall
Who we selected: Tyler Bunz
Who we could have selected: Brendan Gallagher
Who we should have selected: guess. Gallagher is an amazing late-round find for the Habs who lacks size, but makes up for it with all kinds of what the Oil could use right now.
162nd overall
Who we selected: Brandon Davidson
Who we could have selected: Konrad Abeltshauser
Who we should have selected: Davidson. Abeltshauser is a rangy two-way guy drafted from the Mooseheads, so I'd love for the Oilers to have drafted him, but it's not clear he's particularly better than Davidson. Davidson is steady-eddy, and is a longshot for the NHL while Abeltshauser is very toolsy and is completely boom-or-bust. Where neither has a good chance as of right now to be an impact NHLer, tie goes to the runner.
166th overall
Who we selected: Drew Czerwonka
Who we could have selected: Mark Stone
Who we should have selected: Stone. Czerwonka is already come and gone, and Mark Stone has done something most 6th round guys don't do: play in the NHL.
181st overall
Who we selected: Kristian Pelss
Who we could have selected: Frederik Andersen
Who we should have selected: Andersen, probably. He's a potential tandem guy in the NHL who's had varying splits at the NHL level. Pelss may not have ever been an NHLer, but it feels dirty straying from him. He didn't do a thing wrong in his development.
202nd overall
Who we selected: Kellen Jones
Who we could have selected: Riley Boychuk, Brendan Ranford
Who we should have selected: At this point, let's make a headline. The Oilers draft the third Boychuk sibling, or better yet: the Oil draft Bill Ranford's nephew Brendan. In fact, given the old boys club, I'm surprised the Oilers resisted. Actually, we traded a 2011 6th for this pick (which ended up the first pick of that round) for this 7th - the 9th last pick of the draft. my redraft suggestion is to not do that.
So the new draft class is Hall, Smith-Pelley, Toffoli, Marincin, Gudas, Pulkkinen, Gallagher, Davidson, Stone, Andersen and who cares. Note that unlike our actual selections, I didn't draft a centre, but I did draft 3 dmen and a goalie, just like we had planned. Using hindsight, it's a better draft than we had by far, but looking back actually confirmed what I concluded earlier about the wealth of talent the Oilers did manage to find in that draft.
right in the taint