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

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.