Nearly 28 years after Wayne Gretzky left the Oilers in a trade for Los Angeles, it appears that the Oilers will once again have a Gretzky in their organization. No, Wayne isn’t coming back, but his brother appears to be coming to Edmonton to join his former boss, Peter Chiarelli.
Guy Flaming tweeted the following on Monday afternoon, which started the Gretzky to Edmonton chatter.
Rumor du jour: a non-Oiler source suggests that Keith Gretzky could/will be a new AGM for the #Oilers.
— Guy Flaming (@TPS_Guy) August 1, 2016
Later on Monday night, TSN’s Bob McKenzie followed up Flaming’s report with some confirmation from his end that Gretzky is headed to Edmonton.
Just saw some Keith Gretzky to EDM as AGM rumors. It’s my understanding he will, in fact, be joining EDM in that capacity in near future.
— Bobby in the 6ix (@TSNBobMcKenzie) August 2, 2016
Gretzky’s Resume:
For a moment, let’s put aside the obvious connection between Keith and Wayne, the best player to ever wear an Oilers jersey. Yes, Keith is The Great One’s younger brother, but let’s try and focus on why Keith was in position to get the Assistant GM’s job in Edmonton.
Currently, as nothing official has come from Edmonton, Gretzky serves as the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Boston Bruins. Gretzky has been apart of the Bruin organization for five years, serving in his current role for the previous three seasons. Prior to that, Gretzky was an amateur scout with the B’s.
Before joining the Bruins, Gretzky was the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Arizona Coyotes, holding that position from 2006-2011. He got his start as an amateur scout with Arizona in 2001, a position he served in for five seasons with the club. If you’re counting, that’s just about 15 years of NHL experience as both a scout and Director of Amateur Scouting. Not bad.
Recent Draft History:
The Bruins have come under fire for failing to draft and develop players in recent years. That is a fair and accurate statement. The Bruins traded away numerous draft selections and missed the mark on the picks that they did have. That being said, blame can’t be placed on Gretzky’s shoulders for these missteps.
Why is that? Gretzky took over as the Director of Amateur Scouting prior to the 2014 draft. That means he has overseen the Bruins’ operation for the previous three entry drafts. How has he done there? It’s tough to say, I like Lowetide’s five year rule a lot, but there are a lot of good arrows here.
2014:
Gretzky and the Bruins hit it big with his first selection, David Pastrnak. The 25th overall pick in 2014 has already emerged as a legit top-six forward in the NHL, that’s exceptional value. 4th round pick Danton Heinen has shown flashes of brilliance in the NCAA and he’s expected to make the jump to the professional ranks this season. He’s got the look of another NHL talent.
Ryan Donato (56th overall) has had a solid NCAA career at Harvard and could be a depth NHL’er, while Anders Bjork (146th overall) scored 35 points in 35 games for Notre Dame in the NCAA last season. Not bad.
2015:
The Bruins had a lot of high picks in the 2015 draft, and most of them were viewed as reaches at the time. That said, there are more nice arrows in this group. Jake DeBrusk, Jakub Zboril and Zach Senyshyn were all first round selections for Boston. Senyshyn had an impressive draft +1 season, while DeBrusk battled injuries but dominated when healthy. Zboril, on the other hand, struggled in the QMJHL.
That said, Brandon Carlo (37th overall), Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson (45th overall) and Jeremy Lauzon (52nd overall) were all very impressive this past season in their respective leagues. Carlo and Lauzon have both skyrocketed to the top of the prospect list in the past year, to the point where both are penciled in as long-term solutions in Boston.
2016:
Obviously, it’s way too early to tell on this draft class. Charles McAvoy was selected 14th overall and he appears to be a strong pick for Boston. Trent Frederic (29th overall) appears to be a reach pick with limited potential, and there was exceptional value still on the board.
As mentioned, it’s too early to tell with the 2016 draft class, so I won’t really get into it. A full list of Gretzky’s selections can be found here. Direct your attention to the three years highlighted above if you do go looking at the list of picks.
Will There Be a Shakeup?:
Gretzky is expected to take the Assistant GM role in Edmonton next to Chiarelli. Currently, the Oilers employ Bill Scott in this position. Scott is well respected among those in the game and I don’t think he is going to lose his job here to accommodate Gretzky. I can see Edmonton simply adding Gretzky to the staff as a second AGM. Scott also serves as the GM of the Bakersfield Condors, something to keep in mind.
Instead, I think one of Craig MacTavish and Scott Howson is going to be shown the door. MacT and Howson were the duo that ran hockey ops for the Oilers prior to Chiarelli’s entrance in May of 2015. It’s also worth noting that a number of MacT/Howson additions (Nikitin, Scrivens, Gordon, Gazdic, Purcell, Fasth, etc) have been shown the door since Chiarelli took over.
I suspect that Howson is the odd man out here, considering that he was no where to be seen on draft weekend while Craig MacTavish was at the table and went on stage with the Oil when they picked Jesse Puljujarvi.
Closing Remarks:
You’re going to hear a lot of people complain about this hire in the next few days (Well, when it becomes official) because of the last name and the Bruins connection. That said, Gretzky is an experienced hockey guy and actually has a decent track record at the draft table. Since he took over the Bruins drafting, their pipeline has quickly shot up as one of the better ones in hockey.
Gretzky, who worked with Chiarelli for four years, is likely to be his right-hand man from here on out. As Assistant GM, he’ll be in the room with Chiarelli, Bill Scott and, presumably, Craig MacTavish, when the decisions are made.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have Keith Gretzky in the office than Scott Howson moving forward, which I suspect is the trade off.
Before we jump Keith Gretzky for his last name, let’s take a minute to process his resume and look at his recent successes as the Director of Amateur Scouting in Boston.
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