Who Are the Oilers Top 10 Prospects?

Since the dawn of list making, the Wayne Gretzky of lists has been the top 10 list. Search the internet and you’ll find a cornucopia of top 10 lists–the top 10 movies of all time, the top 10 most beautiful places in the world, the top 10 serial-killing long-haul truckers, and on and on it goes. Hockey fans also like to make top 10 lists, and the favourite top 10 hockey list seems to be the top 10 prospects list.

The Other Guys’ Lists

For our list, we are defining a “prospect” as Hockey Prospectus does: he “must be no more than 25 years old as of October 7, 2015.” And, he must “have played in fewer than 40 NHL regular season games, with 25 games being the cut-off among netminders.” Before we reveal our own list, let’s get a sampling of some of the other Oilers’ top 10 prospects lists.

Some Observations

The above lists require a couple of explanations. First, Orange Copper & Blue’s list is actually a “Top 25 Under 25” list, but we removed those players who don’t meet our prospect standard. Second, Leon Draisaitl was not included in the Cult of Hockey‘s list because they only included players who had NHL rookie status. However, we did ask the Cult of Hockey guys we’re they’d put Draisailt if he had been included. David Staples and Jonathan Willis ranked Draisaitl third, while Bruce McCurdy said he should be second.

As you can see, there’s unanimous agreement on who the Oilers’ top 4 prospects are. Connor McDavid is obviously the top prospect. Then Draisaitl and Nurse are the next two (in varying order), and Griffin Reinhart is fourth. There are 7 prospects who appear on only one list: Jordan Oesterle (6th by C&B), Joey LaLeggia (6th by HP), Eetu Laurikainen (8th by HP), Brandon Davidson (10th by CoH), Tyler Pitlick (9th by C&B), Ethan Bear (10th by LT), and Martin Gernat (10th by HP). Gernat’s inclusion by Hockey Prospectus is a bit surprising. If these lists we’re revised today, we’re guessing Anton Slepyshev would be ranked higher, and Davidson would appear on all the lists.

And Now Without Further Ado

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now proud to introduce to you our top-ten prospects of the Edmonton Oilers. Drum roll, please.

1. Connor McDavid – How is it possible that a prospect with so much hype could exceed expectations? McDavid is currently tied for 11th in NHL scoring (5-7-12).
2. Darnell Nurse – Has 1 goal and 1 assist in his first 3 games with the Oilers. Nurse could be the top-pairing defenseman that the Oilers so desperately need.
3. Leon Draisaitl – He’s been putting up points since he returned to Edmonton (3-2-5 in 2 games). It only took Draisaitl one game to score more goals than Sam Bennett (1-4-5 in 11 games)!
4. Griffin Reinhart – It’s been an injury-plagued start to the season for Reinhart, but he projects to be a top 4 defenseman.
5. Anton Slepyshev – Got a spot on the big club by impressing Todd McLellan in training camp. It might do Slepy some good to eventually be sent to Bakersfield for more ice time.
6. Bogdan Yakimov – The big center has started slowly in Bakersfield (2-1-3 in 8 games).
7. Brandon Davidson – Used his big shot to score 2 goals for the Oilers in his last 2 games.
8. Iiro Pakarinen – Might be destined to be a AAAA player.
9. Laurent Brossoit – The top goalie prospect in the system.
10. Josh Winquist – Just seems to score wherever he goes. Currently 3-3-6 in 5 games with the Condors.

Edit: It was pointed out to me that Josh Winquist wasn’t drafted by the Oilers and is signed to only an AHL contract, so next man up is Greg Chase.

And Now for the Surprise Ending

Perhaps the most famous of all top 10 lists were the ones featured on David Letterman’s late show. So let’s conclude this post by watching Letterman’s first ever top 10 list. And what’s surprising about this list is that an Oilers’ prospect is included!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKjBNuGypnw