The Edmonton Oilers have built a broader pool of prospects in recent years than the organization has had in decades.
Poor drafting and developing hampered the Edmonton Oilers for years. Between 2008 and 2011, the Oilers selected star forwards Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the first round, but the organization failed to bring along a second wave of young talent to help push the team back into the playoffs.
The Oilers can’t allow this to happen again during the Connor McDavid era. And since GM Peter Chiarelli and Assistant GM Keith Gretzky took control, the Oilers have had significantly better results at the draft.
It’s no secret that many Oilers fans wanted Chiarelli to be fired this off-season for basically every major trade he has made since taking the job, despite having major organizational holes to fill. However, Chiarelli and his staff have pulled multiple good prospects out of four consecutive drafts, which has resulted in a much deeper prospect pool than the one of inherited in April 2015.
With Oilers Development Camp in the books and the 2018 World Junior Showcase starting Saturday, I decided to release my list of the Oilers top 10 prospects. When putting together this list, I made NHL readiness the critical factor in determining the rankings.