Point Shots: Will the Oilers Trade Down in the 2015 Draft?

1. I recently read an article on New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick’s impressive history of trading down in NFL drafts. This made me think about Craig MacTavish’s 2013 draft. In that draft, MacTavish traded down twice. First, MacTavish traded the 37th pick to Los Angeles for three picks: the 57th, 88th, and 96th picks. The Kings selected Valentin Zykov with the 37th pick. Then MacTavish traded the 57th pick to St. Louis for three more picks: the 83rd, 94th, and 113th picks. With the 57th pick, the Blues drafted William Carrier. As a result of those two trades, the Oilers ended up acquiring 5 draft picks for 1: Bogdan Yakimov (83), Anton Slepyshev (88), Jackson Houck (94), Kyle Platzer (96), and Aidan Muir (113). The 7 players involved in the two trades and their stats from the current season can be compared in the table below.

2. Judging from the point totals, the two players the Oilers traded away–Zykov and Carrier–appear to be struggling. (Though the whole story usually can’t be told by point totals.) The three players that stand out for the Oilers are Yakimov, Slepyshev, and Platzer. If I had the choice today between Zykov or Yakimov, Slepyshev, and Platzer, I’d take the latter three. So, as of today, I’d say MacTavish performed well at the 2013 draft.

3. Could MacTavish do something similar in the upcoming draft? The Oilers currently possess two first round picks–their own and the pick acquired from Pittsburgh in the David Perron trade. However, I think it’s usually unwise to trade down in the first round. But it’s possible that the Oilers will also end up with two second round picks. It appears almost certain that Jeff Petry will be dealt before the trade deadline, and the return might be a second round pick. If that happens, I hope MacTavish aggressively pursues using one of those second round picks to trade down.

4. I recently stumbled upon a website called the 2015 NHL Draft Lottery Simulator. Right now, the Oilers are 29th in the NHL standings and have a 13.5% chance of winning the draft lottery. The first time I ran the simulator, Colorado won. In their current position, they only have a 2.5% chance of winning. The Oilers won on the third try.

5. On Friday night, as I was leaving the Halifax Mooseheads game, I saw a guy with a notepad who looked a lot like Scott Howson. I wanted to say something to him, but in that moment, for some reason, I couldn’t remember his name. One of the local TV guys later confirmed my suspicion that it was indeed Mr. Howson. In the game, the Mooseheads hosted the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. The two players in that game of most interest to the Oilers would probably be Timo Meier of Halifax and Evgeny Svechnikov of Cape Breton. Meier and Svenchinov are ranked 20th and 21st respectively in Bob McKenzie’s mid-season draft ranking. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of either.

@jonrmcleod you'd be correct that you saw him, check out our chat when the game is ondemand on #EastlinkTV pic.twitter.com/o771zoElZm

— Mavs Gillis (@MavsGillis) January 31, 2015

6. During the Oilers’ most recent game versus Washington, the Capitals’ TV analyst said that Nikita Nikitin “is very good in his own end.” No, I’m not making this up.

7. Today’s random hockey card:

On this day in 2000, the Oilers placed Pat Falloon (remember him?) on waivers. Falloon was eventually claimed by the Penguins. With the Oilers, he appeared in 115 games, tallying 22 goals and 36 assists. Falloon was drafted 2nd overall by the Sharks in the 1991 NHL Draft. (From now on, all the hockey cards in my posts will come from my own personal collection.)