Well, here we are again Oilers fans. The draft is complete and for the 4th year in a row, we are rolling in quality prospects. Peter Chiarelli decision to overhaul the amateur scouting staff is looking better and better every day. Keith Gretzky and Bob Green are working together masterfully to rebuild the Oilers’ pipeline after the old boys used it for their golden toilets.
Do you know how I know that Chiarelli had an amazing draft? Even the staunchest of Anti-Chiarelli fans were happy…
Quick and dirty player reviews! Let’s go!
Evan Bouchard – Future top-pairing stud and the search is over for a top-4 bomb-dropping PP quarterback.
Ryan McLeod – Speed to kill with a devious shot.
Olivier Rodrigue – Best NA goalie in the draft, how can you go wrong?
Michael Kesselring – Closest he might get to the NHL is by holding a picture of Kessel’s ring.
Patrik Siikanen – Hopefully a Finnish Maksimov?
EXTENDED PLAYER REVIEWS
But in all seriousness, those top three picks are outstanding. Near Genius level player selecting. Evan Bouchard may very well play next in the NHL next season but I hope not. I hate the idea of adding another teenager to the team, a defenseman no less. The problem is he’s got nothing left to prove at the OHL level and he’s too young to go to the AHL. Without a defenseman currently on the roster being traded, there’s not a lot of room on the playing roster either. So here’s to hoping that he gets a good long look but is leading Team Canada to gold during Christmas. He can always come back at the end of the season if London’s season is over.
Personally, I don’t think the Oilers are done making a move for a right-handed dman. I think they’d like to move on from Sekera’s contract and add another righty on the blueline for at least a season as a stop-gap until Bouchard is ready next season. I think Mike Green would be a fine candidate to fill that role but I don’t have the slightest idea if he’d accept a one year contract at his age nor do I know what he’d be willing to play for. Would the Oilers even have the cap to sign a player like him and is it even in their plans given they signed Joel Persson then immediately loaned him back to his SHL club?
Drafting Ryan McLeod gives the Oilers a start on working on the pipeline’s depth down the middle but what a start it is. I think he looks like a faster Ryan Strome but left-handed. Add him to Marody, Hebig, Vesel, Gambardella, and Rasanen as players that have a decent to good chance at becoming NHLers.
Olivier Rodrigue is the son of one of the Oilers goalie coaches but there’s no sense in holding that against him. He was also Central Scoutings top-rated goalie in North America. Chiarelli has certainly worked hard to make the Oilers pipeline deep in net, eh? Skinner, Wells, Ellis (RFA), Hawkey, and Starrett are going to be competing for 2 spots in the AHL (possibly versus Al Montoya) and the ECHL next season and I’m dying to see which one is the odd man out and what happens to him. Surely Rodrigue will be there in a few years.
I’ve got nothing on Kesselring or Siikanen nor do I feel like they are legitimate NHL Prospects. I’m not sure what the Oilers scouts see in these guys. Maybe they drafted them with eyes on other players they might be playing with in the future. I mean it’s not every day that the Oilers draft a kid out of the Finnish junior division.
A wise man one said, “Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.”
Hopefully, Chiarelli stands pat here and keeps doing what he’s doing because it’s working.
