Getting to the Root of the Oilers' Problems

The incompetence that is the Edmonton Oilers is well documented, and while it has been an ongoing problem, there are certainly ways to fix this problem.  Today, I look at one issue that has been plaguing the Oilers since before their first Stanley Cup championship: drafting and scouting.

Before you say anything about the recent picks and the failure of them panning out, remember that this is not an entirely new phenomenon, as the Oilers have drafted poorly for much of their existence in the first round, it just showed real signs when the Oilers started dismantling their championship team of the mid-80's with the Wayne Gretzky trade in 1988.

Beginning with the 1984 Draft (the first five drafts produced players that would be instrumental to the team's dynastic run on some level), the Oilers have had 38 total first round picks, which includes the 2014 Draft, and while it is too soon to tell whether Darnell Nurse or Leon Draisaitl will pan out, it is clear that the Oilers don't exactly know what to do with them once they are in the system.  In fact, from 1984 until 2001, the only players to have even had a significant impact with the Oilers were Jason Arnott (1993), Ryan Smyth (1994), and Ales Hemsky (2001) while players like Boyd Devereaux (1996), Tyler Wright, and Martin Rucinsky (both 1991) made an impact elsewhere in the NHL.  That means the Oilers got almost nothing out of their picks from 1984 to 1990.  No wonder the Oilers were in dire straits when the likes of Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, and Coffey were sent out.

While on the surface the Oilers should be past the rebuilding stage at this point, remember that the Oilers have been in such since 2006, when they traded Chris Pronger after he wanted out.  Despite having had three first overall picks from 2010-12, the Oilers have had, at best, uneven effort from the trio (Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov), while at worst, Yakupov plays absolutely no defense (-18 this season).

What the last bit says is that the Oilers are wanting to accelerate the rebuilding process while forgetting to actually build a solid foundation for the players to succeed.  Translation: their blue line is still minor-league level and they haven't been able to identify a number one goaltender since Curtis Joseph in the late 90's.

The Oilers have a multitude of problems, with their inability to figure out what to do with their prospects most of the time being one of them.  It's going to be major digging out for a team that hasn't found much success this century.