Who’s Todd Nelson Had to Develop?

I posted and article the other day about how I think the team should call up OKC Barons head coach Todd Nelson. Well I got a few comments on the site praising me for my genius (I doubt it is an original idea, but thanks none the less. Anyhow the post started a twitter conversation between a few people on my time line and it got me thinking, read the tweets below and I’ll fill you in on the rest after.

@Westcory @Alex_Thomas14 @JackieDee16 @RustyKnuckler put it in to perspective though. what players has he had to develop?

— The Beaker (@4enzix) January 22, 2014

So what player’s has Todd Nelson had to develop you ask? I’m only going to look at 2^nd round picks from the 2009 thru 2011 drafts, because Nelson took over the farm in 2010 and there aren’t any picks from the 2012/2013 draft that have made it to the farm yet. There was a whole conversation from the gentlemen above but I’m not smrt enough to get the whole thing posted in a blog, but I think you get the drift.

2009

The Oilers drafted Anton Lander in the second round, Lander is a “veteran” of 79 NHL games. He’s been both good and bad at the NHL level, playing mostly a 4^th line role. He’s only got 7 points in those games. But on the farm he’s currently the team’s captain and leading scorer. Under Todd Nelson he’s seeing his most success and is almost guaranteeing a call up sooner than later.

One of the neat things about the Lander pick in the 2009 draft is that of all 30 players drafted in the 2^nd round, Lander rates 4^th in NHL games played behind only Ryan O’Reilly, Kyle Clifford and Dmitri Orlov, who’ve played 312, 246, and 89 games respectively.

2010

The second round of the 2010 draft was a good one for Stu MacGregor and the Oilers organization. They picked up Tyler Pitlick and Martin Marincin. Marincin looks to be turning into a serviceable NHL defenseman and if it wasn’t for the unfortunate knee injury when Pitlick was up with the team I have a feeling he’d still be around. Combined the two have only played 17 NHL games which isn’t a crazy amount, but the fact they both have played in the NHL and don’t look completely out of place is a sign of both good drafting and good coaching.

The whole second round of the 2010 draft, only 13 players have played NHL games and the Oilers have 2 of them. But the Minesota Wild have 3, holy crap batman. Some noteable 2^nd round picks from ’10 are Justin Faulk with 153 NHL games played already, and Devante Smith-Pelley a vet of 72 games with the Anaheim Ducks.

2011

The 2011 2^nd round of the draft has 9 players who’ve played NHL games so far, the Oilers do not have one of those players. You will remember here that the Oil went off the board a little and picked David Musil at 31^st overall. I wasn’t happy with the pick then and I’m not happy with the pick now. It’s too early to call Musil a bust, but he’s got a lot of work to do in order to get to the big leagues.

I guess it’s a sign of success that only 9 players from the 2^nd round of this draft have played NHL games but one of them, Brandon Saad, has played 100 already. DOH.

SO…..

So the Oilers have 3 players from the 2^nd round of the last 5 drafts that have played or are currently playing in the NHL. That’s 50% seeing as the team has made 6 second round picks. The percentages of teams that land a 50% success rate is horrible and the Oilers have a leg up here than most other teams.

In fact there are only 3 other teams that have had the same 3 player successes. Chicago has 3 and one of them is forward Brandon Saad. Detroit has 3, and maybe most impressive is that Minnesota has 3 and they’re all from the same draft.

It goes to show that Magnificent Bast@rd Stu isn’t all that bad at his job, in fact he’s more successful in at least the 2^nd round than 26 other NHL head scouts. Add to that the fact that Todd Nelson has been able to continue to develop these kids to where they have a real chance and I think it’s something, albeit something minor, that us fans can look forward to and another reason that the Oilers need to do whatever they need to do in order to keep Nelson and MacGregor in the system.

Thanks For Reading