Revisiting the 2015 NHL entry draft - how did the Oilers make out?

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I'm going to be starting a series to get us through the dog days of summer. To anyone who has been following the Oilers over a number of years, it's no surprise that the Oilers had a horrific track record of drafting and developing prior to Peter Chiarelli joining the team in 2015 and becoming the first Oilers general manager to have the courage to do a housecleaning of the scouting staff, both amateur and pro ranks.

The Oilers have been reaping the benefits ever since with a much improved drafting record. Say what you want about the guy as GM, this was one of the things he did right during his tenure.

Overall the 2015 NHL draft was a nice deep one where teams hit on a lot of picks, including the Oilers. Let's see where they hit:

Round one - Connor McDavid, first overall

If you cheer for the Oilers and don't know who Connor McDavid is, then I don't know what planet you're on but it certainly isn't earth. He's only grown into what is widely acknowledged as one of the best NHL players of all time and the next generational talent after Sidney Crosby was drafted by the Penguins, no big deal or anything.

Never finishing with less than 30 goals in a season outside of his rookie year - and that was only due to injury, nothing else. Multiple 40 goal seasons and a 60 goal season. Last season he became one few players to crack 100 assists in a season - only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Bobby Orr have done it before. The only reasons he hasn't hit 100 points in every season he's played, is due to injury in one season and the pandemic cutting another NHL season short.

Last season McDavid also won the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP despite the Oilers losing the Stanley Cup Final, something only six players before him have done. Winner of multiple Hart, Art Ross and Ted Lindsay trophies and one Rocket Richard trophy win two seasons ago. There's only one trophy missing from his case and hopefully he'll get it this upcoming season. A mere 18 points shy of 1,000, a mark he will hit this upcoming season.

Hit or miss? Hit, massive hit

Rounds 2-4

Rounds two and three - no picks - both picks were moved in the much maligned Griffin Reinhart trade with the New York Islanders. The third round pick was actually initially sent to Anaheim by the Oilers in the trade for goalie Viktor Fasth, and it was flipped to the Islanders by the Ducks for Eric Brewer.

Round four - Caleb Jones, 117th overall - it's worth noting that the Oilers' own fourth round pick was traded away to St. Louis along with Magnus Pajaarvi and a third round pick in exchange for David Perron. They also traded away a second round pick in 2014 in this trade which turned into Ivan Barbashev - and that stings a bit.

Jones was selected with a fourth round pick that was acquired from Montreal after the Oilers traded away Jeff Petry to them. Jones turned into nothing special but he did okay for a fourth round pick. He was eventually traded away to Chicago for Duncan Keith, so he could play with his brother Seth there. He has remained a bottom pairing defender ever since, par for the course for a fourth round pick. From Chicago he was traded away to Colorado, then signed as a free agent with the Kings this past offseason.

Hit or miss? Considering where he was drafted, let's call this a hit. Not every draft pick is going to be a smash hit, but if you can stick around in the NHL carving out a role for yourself, that's a solid career.

Who did the Oilers miss out on? No one of any consequence, the biggest name taken after Jones was Mathieu Joseph.

The Bear pick

Round five - Ethan Bear, 124th overall - Basically a rinse and repeat of Jones. He did put up a 21 point season once for the Oilers so we thought we might have some cheap puck moving help from the blueline in Ethan Bear for a while, but he has yet to eclipse that total in his career. In the 2021 offseason, he would go on to be moved to Carolina for Warren Foegele, a solid trade for the Oilers as he had more success in Edmonton than Bear had in Carolina.

Bear ended up being traded to Washington for Lane Pederson, who actually plays for the Condors right now, and just re-upped in free agency for the Capitals. At this point Bear and Jones are mirror copies of each other - bottom pairing d-men. Still, that's pretty good for a fifth round pick.

Hit or Miss? Let's call this one a hit, considering where Bear was picked.

Did the Oilers miss out on anybody after taking Bear? Yes, the Oilers unfortunately missed out on two picks as Kirill Kaprizov was taken by Minnesota after Bear and Troy Terry was taken by Anaheim after Bear as well. Honourable mention to Nikko Mikola (St. Louis) who although he's played less games and hasn't scored as much as Bear is a tougher, more physical player than Bear.

It stings a bit missing out on Kaprizov or Terry, however, as the Oilers top six forward group would look a lot different today if they had taken either one of those guys. Although not a failure with this pick, it does sting a bit to know they could've done better, but, in the Oilers' defence, by the fifth round the draft is basically a crapshoot at best.

Oilers miss out

Round six - John Marino, 154th overall - Marino's story with the Oilers is an interesting one. After finishing his US college career with Harvard University, and seeing a logjam at right defence at the time, Marino refused to sign an ELC with the Oilers, forcing their hand in trading his signing rights to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2019 for sixth round pick. Marino didn't even spend any time in the minors, making the Penguins right out of camp and putting up 26 points for them in his rookie season with a +17, phenomenal numbers for an NHL rookie.

Marino's point totals dipped to 13 the next year, but we can likely chalk this up to the pandemic ending the NHL season early. In a full season once again the next year he was back up to 25 points. Marino was then traded to the New Jersey Devils that season, and played two seasons for them before signing as a free agent a few weeks ago with the Utah hockey club.

Hit or miss? Despite the fact that the Oilers never benefited from his services, based on sheer numbers alone we'll have to call this a hit. No way to avoid the fate of the player though, not much you can do if he doesn't want to sign his ELC with us.

Did the Oilers miss out on anyone after taking Marino? Yes, the Oilers missed out on taking stay at home blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov (Columbus), top six forward Andrew Mangiapane (Calgary), and bottom six forward Mason Appleton (Winnipeg), all of whom are still playing today.

On paper all of these guys are likely a wash with Marino in terms of talent level. However, it does sting a little considering that had the Oilers drafted any of these guys rather than Marino, that the prospect likely would've done the opposite of Marino and signed with them, meaning they would've gotten something out of this pick rather than just a trade chip.

Rounding thing out

Round seven (two picks), Miroslav Svoboda (208th overall) and Ziyat Paigan (209th overall) - It's worth noting that the Oilers' own pick in this draft was swapped with the New York Rangers as part of the Cam Talbot trade. So the Oilers ended up moving down in the seventh round, not a big deal as this round is essentially the biggest of longshots for every team.

The Oilers drafted Paigan with that pick, a well traveled pick that had been included in many trades, going from Tampa Bay to the Rangers to Edmonton finally. Svoboda's pick was also acquired in trade as Tampa Bay would trade this pick to the Oilers in exchange for the Oilers seventh round pick in the 2016 draft. This was Chiarelli trying to acquire more quantity of draft picks, since at this point the prospect well was relatively dry.

Neither player turned out to be anything of consequence, as goalie Miroslav Svoboda was so inconsistent that even in Europe he never did much. He briefly played in the ECHL for the Atlanta Gladiators in North America but put up rather pedestrian numbers. This forced him to go back to Europe where he would bounce around between the Austrian, Czech, and Finnish pro leagues as well as the Swedish minor leagues, before ending this past season with mediocre numbers.

Left defender Paigan fared a bit better but not much. He actually came over to North America from Russia to play sparingly in two seasons for Bakersfield, where he played 12 games over those two seasons producing no offence in either season and +/- marks of -4 and -2.

Neither player came close to playing a game for the Oilers.

Hit or miss? Most definitely a miss. But let's be honest here - if you're going to miss on a draft pick, the seventh round is the ideal place to do so.

Did the Oilers lose out on anyone taken after Svoboda or Paigan? No. These picks were the third and fourth last picks of the 2015 draft, and neither of the players taken after these two played any NHL games either. Only two impact players were taken in this round period, and both were drafted before the Oilers picks so they never had a chance at either of them.

For the record, these two players were right shot D-man Matt Roy, who just signed a big $$ deal with the Washington Capitals, and goalie Joey Daccord who will be backing up Grubauer in Seattle. Although if he can prove last year wasn't a fluke, then he may attain starter status for the Kraken.

Overall verdict

This was a very successful draft, I'd say the Oilers' best since 1979 when the Oilers drafted Kevin Lowe (first round), Mark Messier (third round), and Glenn Anderson (fourth round), three players who would go on to become core players for Edmonton in their dynasty years.

McDavid has lived up to the hype and then some. Neither Jones nor Bear amounted to a whole lot, but the Oilers were able to turn them into trade chips for superior players - Jones got traded for Keith who helped solidify the bottom pairing for the Oilers that year. He went on one last playoff run with them in 2022, before hanging up his skates for good and moving into a player development role with the Oilers.

Bear, meanwhile, was sent to Carolina for Foegele, a fantastic bottom six forward who didn't look out of place in the top six in some nice spurts. He became a luxury the Oilers couldn't afford nor had a place in the lineup for where he truly wanted to play this past offseason. However, Foegele provided three seasons of quality play after getting traded here, chipping in secondary offence, mostly from the third line, and showing flashes of his potential scoring 20 goals playing spot duty on the second line for bunches of last season with Leon Draisaitl.

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There was no way to avoid the Marino situation in hindsight and if he wasn't going to sign with the Oilers, it would've been nice to know that on draft day before his name was called, but such is life. Failing in the seventh round is the norm, so missing out on those two picks is not a big deal.

Overall Chiarelli really showed his drafting chops here. Would the drafting momentum continue in 2016? Stay tuned to find out.