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Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824029 is a reply to message #824025 ]	Mon, 29 May 2023 14:04

RDOilerfan
Messages: 3908
Registered: January 2016

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Adam wrote on Mon, 29 May 2023 13:13

Mike wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 13:19

RDOilerfan wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:29

UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.

Nobody had Jesse less than 3. Maybe one publication. He was neck and neck with Laine most of the year IIRC. They can't be faulted for that pick.

The Canucks on the other hand - that one hurts. Juolevi wasn't exactly a Niinimaki level reach, but he had fallen off quite a bit I think on most rankings, and Keller and Tkachuk were there for the taking.

This is the thing. People have all these dumb ideas that Columbus knew something, because he's a Finn and he didn't take the Finn, but that just isn't how it works - and you would never have people claiming an American GM knew something more about an American kid, just because of what country he's from.

As for not speaking English - you know who else spoke zero English when he was drafted? Jari Kurri. He learned in Edmonton watching Happy Days re-runs. It's not a big red flag either - especially considering that he seemed to have limited aptitude for language. I would hazard a guess that someone like Ryan Smyth wouldn't have picked up other languages very quickly at the same age. Probably didn't do pre-draft interviews with the Canadiens in French...

It's all hindsight. Nothing more.

With regards to the draft overall? That's not terrible actually. They got over 300 games and over 100 points out of Puljujarvi and they've got another 100+ games out of Benson, Niemelainen, Desharnais and Dylan Wells - of whom the first three are all still in the organization. No one moves the needle much, but we've had a lot worse years.

After Draisaitl, only Lagesson (60 games) made the NHL from the 2014 draft. In 2013, you had Nurse, and then only really Slepyshev (102 games). A single game for Yakimov too. Some truly awful ones pre-turn of the century too - like 1997 where 5th rounder Jason Chimera was good for 1107 games (mostly not with us) but there were only 19 other games for Michel Riesen (12) and Peter Sarno (7). And of course 1990 - when the Oilers were the only team in NHL history to miss on ALL their picks for an entire draft year. 11 picks, not a single NHL game for any of them. 1986 wasn't much better. Out of 12 picks, half got cups of coffee, but no one played more than Dan Currie (22 games) and the sum total was just 50 games in aggregate.

So while no one is going to be writing ballads about our 2016 draft, and while I agree that a better GM would have used that pick or free agency to find a good defenceman or two rather than betting that Puljujarvi plus Lucic made Taylor Hall redundant, the draft could have been a lot worse.

Are you seriously using a guy drafted 36 yrs before JP as an example?! Kurri was drafted in 1980. Come on!! When Kurri was drafted, European players were no where near as common in the NHL as they are now. There are lots of Europeans now so knowing at least some English is pretty standard.

If a regular person knew years in advance they were going to be moving to a country that spoke a different language, the massive majority of people would in advance at least try to learn some of the local language to help with the transition. JP could barely say Yes. Most people would do this on their own without a PAID professional manager giving them advice. It was a major screw up by JP and his agent not to at least have some level of English before the draft. Was it the only mistake by both sides? Absolutely not but it was a factor and to say it wasn't is absolute BS.

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Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Skookum Jim on Fri, 26 May 2023 12:13
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: RDOilerfan on Fri, 26 May 2023 12:29
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Mike on Fri, 26 May 2023 13:19
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Skookum Jim on Fri, 26 May 2023 18:36
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: RDOilerfan on Mon, 29 May 2023 09:00
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Adam on Mon, 29 May 2023 13:13
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: RDOilerfan on Mon, 29 May 2023 14:04
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Adam on Mon, 29 May 2023 15:42
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: RDOilerfan on Tue, 30 May 2023 08:41
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: AndersonRules on Tue, 30 May 2023 10:19
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: RDOilerfan on Tue, 30 May 2023 11:21
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Dragon_Matt on Tue, 30 May 2023 14:34
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: smyth260 on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:17
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: CrusaderPi on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:19
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: inverno76 on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:38
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Kr55 on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:06
Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane..	By: Kr55 on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:05

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