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

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.

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.

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