OILERS MAKE THE MOST OF LIMITED DRAFT PICKS
Hockey staff hoping they’ve landed quality over quantity after lukewarm haul
Sometimes you come away with Taylor Hall or Connor Mcdavid, and sometimes you step aside while the rest of the NHL picks the talent tree bare.
With four draft lottery wins in six years, and some absolute home runs at seventh (Darnell Nurse 2013), third (Leon Draisaitl 2014) and fourth overall (Jesse Puljujarvi 2016), it's going to be a long time before anyone feels sorry for the Edmonton Oilers on a draft weekend.
And they certainly won't be getting any sympathy cards after a lukewarm haul from this year's selection process.
This wasn't a great draft for the Oilers, but we all knew that six months ago. Having lost the third-round pick in the James Neal deal, the second-rounder to get nine games out of Andreas Athanasiou and the fifth-rounder for Tyler Ennis, they knew going in that this wasn't going to provide the same kind of windfall they've enjoyed in the past.
But even though Edmonton's scouts came into this draft with their hands tied (one pick in the top 89, three in the top 179), they feel they accomplished their mission.
“You're at the mercy of whoever's picking in front of you,” said Oilers director of scouting Tyler Wright. “But every one of these picks has fitted some part of their game around the philosophy of how we want the Oilers to look in the coming years.
“I like what we did today, but I know every team says they like what they did today. Time will tell.”
General manager Ken Holland did manage to add a late thirdround pick by trading down two spots on Friday, but 22nd and 90th overall still aren't enough to move the excitement needle in Edmonton.
That's not what concerns Wright, though. All he cares about is whether some of these kids grow up to be useful players someday.
“Any time you're trying to predict the future of an 18-year-old or 19-year-old young man's life, there's no crystal ball. We try to be as diligent as possible.”
The Oilers came away with Xavier Bourgault, a six-foot, 172-pound centre from the QMJHL, with the 22nd pick in the opening round on Friday, then had to wait until the latter stages of the third round Saturday before taking Luca Munzenberger at 90th overall.
Munzenberger is a six-foottwo, 195-pound defenceman who played for Covid-ravaged Germany at the World Juniors last year.
“He was a target for us,” Wright said. “When we were able to get the 90th pick, there was a little more hope that he would be there. He's a big body guy who plays a heavy game. Now we have to develop him.”
He'll play at the University of Vermont this year, where he'll be coached by Todd Woodcroft, brother of Bakersfield Condors coach Jay.
“(Todd) was a big help through this process with the limited viewings we could have,” Wright said.
The Oilers went way off the board with Munzenberger, who was ranked outside the top 200 in some scouting circles. But Wright said his ranking elsewhere did nothing to sway the opinions in Edmonton.
“We work hard, really, really hard,” he said. “We stick to our guns. Seattle went right off the board today (taking defenceman Ryker Evans 35th overall when he was ranked as low as 195). Good on them. They like the player. That's the way that this draft went.
“We had a game plan going in and we stuck with it. We had some targets and we hit a lot of them, and we're excited with the final product.”
Munzenberger was captain of his German junior-league team, and wants to model his game after Nurse. And he couldn't be more excited about following Draisaitl to Edmonton.
“He just texted me,” Munzenberger said with a grin. “He's a great guy. If you're German and you're a hockey player, you have to love the Oilers because of Leon.
“Right now Leon is probably the best athlete Germany has. He even got an award last year for being the greatest athlete of the year. He's a huge star in Germany.”
With their fourth-round pick (116th overall), Edmonton took Jake Chiasson of the Brandon Wheat Kings. The six-foot-one, 165-pound forward had nine goals and 11 assists in 23 WHL games. He's the nephew of former Stanley Cup winner Doug Lidster.
The Oilers scouts saw him play a ton in Regina.
“We had a scout at probably all 23 games,” Wright said. “We covered it really thoroughly. We were excited when he was there. We like the pick and where we got him.”
Rounding out the draft were six-foot-two Russian left winger Matvey Petrov (180th overall), six-foot-four winger Shane Lachance, son of former NHLER Scott Lachance (186th), and Moose Jaw defenceman Maximus Wanner (212th).
No household names there, but with COVID -19 throwing a major wrench into scouting for the past 18 months, this could be the year a lot of very good players emerge from the late rounds.
“For sure,” Wright said. “I think there is going to be great value in this draft when we look back. Every pick that we make we're grinding it out, fitting it into the philosophy of how we want the Oilers to look. This is the start of that.”