The Edmonton Oilers rarely walked to the podium early in the National Hockey League Draft over the past few years. Teams gunning for a championship tend to prefer immediate assets over future ones, and so it makes sense that the Oilers have traded away multiple 1st and 2nd round picks.
The few times they have made a selection, that piece has just as often become trade bait. Perhaps the urgency can best be stated using the words of former general manager Craig MacTavish "I'm an impatient guy, and I bring that impatience to this situation."
So day one of the NHL Draft was quiet, but Edmonton did eventually make a selection in Round 2. Originally holding the 52nd overall pick, the Oilers were convinced to trade back to 58th in exchange for an additional later round pick. When their turn arrived, Stan Bowman did something that Oilers GMs haven't been known for in the past: He picked the 58th ranked player.
Most draft picks aren't NHL ready
Rudolfs Berzkalns isn't a household name. The Latvian center from the Muskegon Lumberjacks isn't likely to give the Oilers Entertainment Group a huge bump in merchandise sales, and it remains to be seen if he'll ever play a NHL game, but in 2026 what the Oilers didn't do was go way off the board.
We can look as far into the past as we want to and find examples of hockey execs thinking they've outsmarted the rest of the league, and a kid they have rated highly somehow slipped by all their opponents and the rest of the amateur scouts in the nation. But when you take the long look, it quickly becomes obvious that for every Wyatt Johnson, there are a dozen or more Xavier Bourgaults.
The collective expertise is right more often than any individual scout, coach or GM, and what Bowman did right was taking a player that was broadly projected to go where he was taken. He was rated as high as 30th (NHL Central Scouting), but as low as 98th elsewhere. Splitting the difference makes sense, and hopefully turns out well for the Oilers.
Berzkalns has a big frame, some offense, and decent speed. He's a project, but every player outside the top ten fit that description, and the upside of being picked later is not having the weight of expectations on your shoulders.
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