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Well, that was boring.
The Edmonton Oilers entered the 2023 NHL Draft with no first round pick for the first time since 2006 and just the second time in the franchise’s 44-year NHL history. The hope was that opening round would produce some drama on the trade front, perhaps even a deal involving the Oilers. Instead, nothing.
Quite a number of first-rounders had been dealt in advance, though, including Edmonton’s. The Oilers’ #24 overall was moved to Nashville at the deadline as part of the hefty price to acquire Mattias Ekholm. That remains a popular trade in Oil Country, even as a few of us diehards surely had some pangs when the Oilers’ turn came and went on Wednesday.
For the record, the Predators picked this guy.
But that’s all the video or scouting reports we have to offer here at the Cult of Hockey tonight, because by and large we cover the Edmonton Oilers, who to this point have nothing to show for their attendance at the annual affair. No shiny new draft picks, no trades.
That will change on Thursday, when Rounds 2-7 will be conducted starting at 9am MDT. Drained by other deadline deals of draft picks for rentals, the Oilers are down a few quarts on Day 2 as well. All of their third, fourth, and fifth rounders have been transferred to other clubs. That leaves the Oil themselves with just a second, a sixth and a seventh round pick, at #56, #184, and #216 respectively.
But surely it will be the day that Ken Holland and company will make some sort of inroads on the trade front. Buyers at the deadline, Holland and company will be sellers at next opportunity, with the first priority being to move out some salary. Be it Kailer Yamamoto, Warren Foegele, Cody Ceci or Brett Kulak, the Oilers need to move on from at least one of their $3 million dollar-class contracts to open up some internal space to accommodate earned raises by the likes of Evan Bouchard and Ryan McLeod. Should such a trade return a draft pick, it’s most likely to be announced when that pick is on the clock. We’ve already seen it won’t be in the first round, but that was never in the cards.
Should Holland fail to move out any of those players, expect the wheels to be greased for a buyout, most likely of Yamamoto, before the deadline of Jun 30 — which is Friday. As the saying goes, hockey happens fast.
The insiders have been saying for a while that there should be a market for cap dumps, and the market itself has been reflecting the same. On Wednesday morning, for example, Vegas Golden Knights moved out skilled winger Reilly Smith and his $5 million salary to Pittsburgh for a 3rd round draft pick and the cap space to sign winger Ivan Barbashev for a $5 million salary of his own.
The Tampa Bay Lightning moved on from depth winger Ross Colton, who after 22- and 16-goal seasons was due for a healthy raise from his prior $1.125 million pact which the Bolts simply can’t afford. Colorado Avalanche got him for a second round pick, but now will have to sign and pay the man. Tampa will have to resort to their usual business of using that second round pick to draft the next Ross Colton, and get a few cheap years out of him.
That was just Wednesday. A day earlier there was a flurry of deals. One saw the Calgary Flames dump winger Tyler Toffoli and his $4.25 million pact to New Jersey for a third round pick and RFA forward Yegor Sharangovich, who they promptly signed to a 2x $3.1 million deal. As was the case with Vegas, the acquired cap space was very temporary, as the club simply reassigned (most of) it to another player. Which is essentially what the Oilers are likely to do with, say, Yamamoto and Bouchard. It’s a dollar-eat-dollar world.
Fact remains that Ken Holland’s club has yet to get involved in the festivities, and time is running out. Thursday is definitely Move Day for the Oil.
At one time, opening night of the Draft was the biggest event of the entire season for the then-hapless Oilers. In consecutive summers 2020-12 they landed Taylor Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov at #1 overall, then got Darnell Nurse at #7, Leon Draisaitl at #3 and Connor McDavid at #1 again in 2015. Franchise-changing acquisitions, year after year, including the entire leadership group of the current squad.
With that young core on board, the Draft became a secondary but still important tool that saw the Oilers land promising players like Jesse Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, and Bouchard from 2016-18. Then in the Holland era 2019-22, Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Xavier Bourgault and the since-traded Reid Schaefer were selected at ever lower draft numbers of 8, 14, 22 and 32. Now comes 2023 and no first-round pick at all.
While that undeniably makes the Draft itself less riveting, in part it is a sign of a competitive team. The Oilers dropped ever lower in draft position because their performance and standing has been on the rise. Now they’ve gotten to the next stage of trading their top pick at the deadline to improve their team in the immediate short term to make a run at the Stanley Cup.
Hasn’t happened yet, though the team is clearly in their window to contend. But after a hefty effort to load up with plenty of trade machinations in 2022-23, the Oil fell short in a 6-game series against the eventual Stanley Cup champs Vegas Golden Knights. In the aftermath of that crushing defeat, the club’s salary register is sufficiently bent out of shape to require a reset.
Best chance to do that cleanly is with some sort of trade, and Thursday morning in Bridgestone Arena the best time and place. Stay tuned, we’ll have full coverage here at the Cult of Hockey.
