 benv
Messages: 549
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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I was just looking and discussing the Oiler's lineup and it struck me how it looks when you break it down by players that were drafted/signed/traded:
Just looking at the 20 players who have been dressing recently:
Drafted: 11 (8 first rounders: RNH, Nurse, Draisaitl, McDavid, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Bouchard, Holloway; 1 second rounder: McLeod; 2 third rounders: Niemalainen, Skinner).
Free agent signees: 7 (Hyman, Kane, Shore, Ryan, Ceci, Barrie, Campbell)
Trade: 2 (Foegele, Kulak)
Adding in other players that have played or will likely play this year:
Murray (signed)
Malone (signed)
Broberg (1st round pick)
Benson (2nd round pick)
We definitely see this Oiler team, which I think might be the best they've had since the cup years, was really built through the draft, particularly the first round where the Oilers have not had a true bust since Yakupov. The core lineup is augmented with some free agents, but trades in the cap world have almost become irrelevant.
For comparison, I looked at the 2006 cup run (the first year of the cap) and the 25 players that played in the playoffs that year. Here's the breakdown:
Drafted 8 (Horcoff (4), Pisani (7), Hemsky (1), Smyth (1), Stoll (2), Winchester (2), Laraque (2), Greene (2)). Numbers in brackets are the draft round.
Signings 6 (Staios, Murray, Bergeron, Harvey, Petersen, Conklin)
Trades 11 (Pronger, Samsonov, Spacek, Torres, Peca, Smith, Moreau, Tarnstrom, Dvorak, Roloson, Markkanen)
So then the team was a mix of drafted players (although only two first rounders) and a bunch acquired through trade. With the exception of Staios I would say the free agents were mostly secondary.
I'd be curious if this is similar for most teams or unique to the Oilers (but I'm too lazy to do the work for other teams).
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