“And we have a winner!” Those five words were the five sweetest words heard by Oiler fans in quite some time. The 2015 NHL draft’s golden ticket belongs to the Oilers and barring some unforeseen incident, Connor McDavid will be selected with the first overall pick. And the Oompa-Loompas will sing a happy song.
The Oilers hold the rights to 10 picks in the draft: #1, #16 (from Pittsburgh), #33, #57 (from Montreal), #79 (from St. Louis), #86 (from Ottawa), #117 (from Montreal), #124, #154, and #184. As already mentioned, we all know what’s going to happen with the first overall pick, but whose name will Peter Chiarelli call when it’s time for the Oilers to make the 16th selection?
There should be lots of high quality prospects available at that position. I took a look at a few mock drafts to see who others think the Oilers will take at 16. Sam Cosentino and our own Alex Thomas think it will be winger Evengy Svechnikov (Cape Breton, QMJHL). Craig Button and Damien Cox say goalie Ilya Samsonov (Magnitogorsk, Russian junior). Jeff Marek has the Oilers taking defenseman Thomas Chabot (Saint John, QMJHL). And Willy Palov thinks it will be a different defenseman: Jeremy Roy (Sherbrooke, QMJHL). Of course, another possibility is that Chiarelli uses the pick to acquire a top-pairing defenseman.
The Oilers probably won’t use all of their 10 draft picks. The team’s goalie problems are well documented, so there’s speculation that they might trade one of their second round picks for a goalie—maybe Cam Talbot, Craig Anderson, Robin Lehner, or Eddie Lack. What the Oilers will do after the second round is anyone’s guess. Bob Green, the team’s Director of Player of Personnel Bob Green has said that the strategy will be to take the best available player with each selection.
Flames, Oilers among teams Rangers have granted permission to speak with Cam Talbot http://t.co/lRHJFZK00p pic.twitter.com/SKF77VevWW
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 26, 2015
What would I like the Oilers to do today? Something like this: (1) draft Connor McDavid with the first overall pick; (2) draft Evengy Svechnikov with the 16th overall pick; (3) trade the 33rd overall pick for Cam Talbot; (4) draft skill, skill, skill with the remaining picks.
In their early days, the Oilers had some amazing drafts. In 1979, they drafted Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier, and Glenn Anderson. Then the next year, they selected Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, and Andy Moog. Oiler fans are hoping that the 2015 draft will also one day be viewed as one of the franchise’s best. One thing we do know: having the first overall pick will get their draft off to a great start.
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