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Published Aug 27, 2023<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 1\u00a0hour ago<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 5 minute read<\/span> <\/p>\n
![\"Tyler](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/edmontonjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/42497457.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=BMwdUD-FjdHoEpGsqAXtjw\" "\\"\\"")
Tyler Wright, picked 12th overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 1991, enjoyed a long NHL career.<\/span> Postmedia, file<\/span> <\/p>\nArticle content<\/h2>\n
There is more bad press for the Edmonton Oilers in terms of their prospect pool. It has now been ranked second last in the NHL by Elite Prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t any stars in the Oilers\u2019 system, but there just may be a few players up to that task,\u201d said editor J.D. Burke. \u201cIt\u2019s a system with a fair bit of depth and a couple of players with serious home run potential occupying the middle part of their ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n
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This low ranking is part of a trend.<\/p>\n
Corey Pronman of the Athletic ranked<\/strong> the Oil\u2019s prospect pool 28th out of 32 teams this past week. Prospect expert Byron M. Bader of Hockey Prospecting also had the entire prospect pool of the Oilers ranked 28th out of 32 NHL teams.<\/p>\n
And the Oil pool was shut out of the NHL Network\u2019s new list of Top 50 NHL prospects. Not one Oilers prospect was in the Top 50.<\/p>\n
In the past four years, Tyler Wright has been Edmonton\u2019s director of amateur scouting with Bob Green his chief scout.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll suggest that it\u2019s too early to judge Wright and Green\u2019s work these past four years. For one thing, the Oilers were a good team in his period and didn\u2019t have one pick in the Top Ten of the draft. For another, the team also traded away a lot of picks. Finally, and most importantly, it\u2019s too early to tell how the prospects taken from 2020 to 2023 by the Oilers will turn out. A number of them could still turn out to be Core 12 players on the Oilers. It\u2019s simply too early to know for sure (Core 12 players on a team are the Top 7 forwards, top 4 d-men and number one goalie).<\/p>\n
Wright and Green\u2019s record in these drafts will be determined only when we know how the following players pan out: Dylan Holloway, 14th overall, 2020; Carter Savoie, 100th, 2020; Tyler Tullio, 126th, 2020; Maxim Berezkin, 138th, 2020; Xavier Bourgault, 22nd, 2021; Luca Munzenberger, 90th, 2021; Matvey Petrov, 180th, 2021; Maximus Wanner, 212th, 2021; Reid Schaefer, 32nd, 2022; Nikita Yeseyev, 190th, 2022; Beau Akey, 56th, 2023.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not Edmonton\u2019s low prospect pool rankings that has me thinking it\u2019s time for the Oilers to move on from Wright. Instead it\u2019s that when we look at Wright\u2019s overall record heading up NHL drafts, the results have been iffy. Wright ran seven drafts for Columbus and Detroit from 2013 to 2019 before he came to Edmonton.<\/p>\n
When I rank a draft I ask four questions:\u00a0 Did the scouts make best use of all their Top 10 overall picks? Did they find at least one Core 12 player on average each year of the draft? Did they identify at least one Team Canada-quality player every four years in the draft? Did they draft a Big 12 player outside of the first round every second year?<\/p>\n
To be successful, NHL teams need Top 10 picks in a draft to at least develop into Core 12 players, if not better. It looks like Wright missed on one Top 10 pick in Detroit, Filip Zadina. Wright may or may not have found a Core 12 forward in Michael Rasmussen, and he aced it with the Moritz Seider pick, as Seider is already a top-pairing d-man and has the talent to battle for a spot on Team Canada, at least if he were Canadian (I used Team Canada as it\u2019s the highest standard, the best team in the world, the hardest to make).<\/p>\n
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In those seven drafts, Wright took one other player who might be Team Canada-quality, Dylan Larkin. Wright did OK-ish in finding Team Canada-quality players, but not great.<\/p>\n
In his seven drafts, he needed to identify seven Core 12 players. He found five of them (Larkin, Seider, Alex Wennberg, Filip Hronek, and Olivier Bjorkstrand, with possibly two others coming, Rasmussen and huge Elmer Soderblom). Given all the draft picks he had in those years, that\u2019s a mediocre return, at best. \u2018<\/p>\n
Numerous first and second round picks failed to pan out as Core 12 players in Detroit and Columbus, possibly Zadina, 16th overall Sonny Milano, 19th overall Evgeny Svechnikov, possibly 30th overall Joe Veleno, 27th overall Marko Dano, 20th overall Dennis Cholowski, 19th overall Kerby Rychel, possibly 35th overall Antti Tuomisto, and 36th overall Jared McIsaac.<\/p>\n
As for late round finds, Bjorkstrand and Hronek were great picks and Soderblom may still rise up, but Detroit and CBJ found small value in picks outside the first round, while not crushing it in the first round either. Jonatan Bergrren may also still pan out as a Core 12 player, but he played just 13:28 per game last season. If he and Soderblom turn into first or second line wingers, Wright\u2019s grade will rise to the point where he\u2019d likely deserve a passing mark for these drafts.<\/p>\n
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But neither CBJ nor Detroit is a good NHL team right now, and the drafting in these seven drafts was part of the problem. The drafts don\u2019t provide much confidence that Wright is in the top tier of NHL talent scouts.<\/p>\n
![\"Tyler](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/edmontonjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-27-at-3.54.30-PM.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nBut what about Bob Green, Wright\u2019s right hand man, who ran the Oilers draft for five years from 2015 to 2019 and has been the chief scout since that time?<\/p>\n
Again, it\u2019s too early to know how well Green and Wright did in the 2020 to 2023 drafts, but Green\u2019s record from 2015 to 2019 was good. He\u2019s got a few big blemishes. He was part of the group in Oil management that was bulllish on Griffin Reinhart and he was also in charge when Jesse Puljujarvi was taken fourth overall. Neither Reinhart nor Puljujarvi has panned out.<\/p>\n
But Green otherwise did well, scoring a number of late round successes.<\/p>\n
In his five drafts the Oilers took one surefire Team Canada-quality player, the no-brainer pick of Connor McDavid in 2015, but Green also took two players later in the draft who are Team Canada hopefuls, d-man Evan Bouchard and goalie Stuart Skinner.<\/p>\n
Not only that he selected six Core 12 players in the five drafts (McDavid, Bouchard, Skinner, John Marino, Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan McLeod), with three other players still being possible Core 12ers (Philip Broberg, Michael Kesselring in Phoenix and Raphael Lavoie).<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m bullish enough on Broberg to list him as possible Team Canada-quality player, though I accept that the majority of NHL scouts and pundits would not agree with that assessment. If Broberg fails as to become a Core 12 player that will be a third major blemish on Green\u2019s record. It\u2019s certainly a possibility.<\/p>\n
But Green hit it big with a number of picks outside the first round, Skinner, 78th overall, Marino 154th, McLeod, 40th, and possibly Kesselring, 164th, and Lavoie, 38th.<\/p>\n
His drafts also saw a few other NHL regular taken in Ethan Bear, 124th overall, Caleb Jones, 117th, and Vincent Desharnais, 183rd overall.<\/p>\n
Green did well in those five years. If he\u2019s also done well with Wright in the last four, that will be huge for the Oilers, but the early press clippings aren\u2019t exactly brimming with good news.<\/p>\n
We shall see.<\/p>\n
![\"Bob](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/edmontonjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-27-at-3.34.50-PM.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nAt the Cult of Hockey<\/h2>\n
LEAVINS: 9 Things<\/strong><\/p>\n
McCURDY: This underrated Oilers prospect seems to have the wind at his back<\/strong><\/p>\n
STAPLES: How many of the Oilers young guns forward prospects pan out<\/strong><\/p>\n
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