Revisiting the 2017 NHL entry draft - how did the Oilers make out?

What a picture that is above, huh? Oilers general managers past and present in the same picture - little did we know at the time that one would be the predecessor of the other. In case you are just tuning in, the 2016 draft results are here, while the 2015 draft results are here.

At this point the Oilers were still rebuilding (although at the time we didn't know that) and thus the theme was continuing to build through the draft rather than quality over quantity. Let's see how they made out.

This time around the Oilers had just made the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. Thus this accounts for the lowest draft position they'd had in quite some time, overcoming what at the time were perennial playoff chokers in San Jose, only to fall to Anaheim in the next round.

Round one - Kailer Yamamoto, 22nd overall

Yamamoto was pegged as a guy who would play on the right wing in the top six forward group for the Oilers, a roster weakness at the time. He was drafted after finishing his third year of junior on a high note, with 99 points in 65 games. Yamamoto was also in the unique position of being an absolute shrimp of a player - he was only listed at 5' 8" and 153 lbs, numbers that are incredibly small for an NHL player. However, this was buoyed by the fact that he had a streak of physicality to his game that no one really expected, which made up for his small stature. This earned him the nickname Mighty Mouse.

Learning from the faux pas the Oilers made with Jesse Puljujarvi the previous fall, after Yamamoto put up a mere three assists and appeared only okay in the early going, he was sent back to junior in his rookie season after nine games. This meant his Entry Level Contract (ELC) didn't kick in until the following season. He then went back to junior and put up another 64 points in the remaining 40 games of the WHL season. He then spent the next two seasons bouncing back and forth between Bakersfield and the Oilers before the covid-shortened season of 2020-21, where he would put up 8-13-21 in 52 NHL games, staying up with the Oilers for good.

Yamamoto then followed that up with what turned out to be his career high, 20-21-41 in 81 NHL games. We all thought he'd won the war for a top six RW spot with Puljujarvi. However, by this time he was off his ELC and in order to avoid arbitration the Oilers signed him to a new short term contract, which challenged him to repeat the previous season's performance. This was a task in which he largely failed after bouncing around the lineup and being a healthy scratch for stretches as well, mustering up only 10-15-25 in 58 games the next season.

In a cap crunch by now, the Oilers needed to save cap space so they traded Yamamoto to Detroit -- along with Klim Kostin -- where he was immediately bought out and became an unrestricted free agent. (That buyout cap hit is still on Detroit's books for next season.) Now as an unrestricted free agent as a result, Yamamoto signed a one-year contract with his hometown Seattle Kraken. He largely repeated the previous season's results, only regressing even further, going 8-8-16 in 59 games for the Kraken. In part because the team as a whole was worse than the Oilers, his +/- also nosedived from +12 in his final Oilers season to -9 with the Kraken.

The Kraken did not re-sign him and thus at the time of this writing, Yamamoto remains an unrestricted free agent with an unclear future ahead of him. He's not coming back to the Oilers as they don't need him anymore - they have much better depth at forward and have multiple prospects knocking at the door, meaning they don't need Yamamoto in their lineup at this point in time. It's hard to say whether someone will take a chance on him or not. It's possible, but he may have to continue his career in Europe. Two straight years of regression means he now comes with more baggage and risk then he did earlier on in his career.

Hit or Miss? Miss. Although the Oilers made out better with Yamamoto than with Puljujarvi the previous season, the fact that he doesn't have a place to play at this point in time means his NHL career may in fact be over before he hits his prime producing years.

Who did the Oilers miss out on? Goalie Jake Oettinger (Dallas), Morgan Frost (Philadelphia), Henri Jokhiharju (Chicago). Honourable mentions to bottom six forwards Ryan Poehling (Montreal) and Kostin (St. Louis). Those first three hurt a lot as Oettinger would have formed a formidable tandem between the pipes with Stuart Skinner. Frost meanwhile, appears to be the real deal for Philly as he's a two-time 40 point scorer and their second line centre - obviously that spot isn't available on the Oilers now. Jokhiharju would go on to be traded to Buffalo, where he's partnering with Owen Power right now. Tolvanen just cracked the 40 point barrier with the Kraken and is a winger on a pretty good third line in Seattle with Yanni Gourde and Olivier Bjorkstrand - hey, you can never have too much bottom six depth. Kostin we'll hear more about in later rounds.

Round two - no pick, traded away to Boston as compensation when the Oilers hired Peter Chiarelli as GM (man what a stupid rule that was) - this was the only pick the Oilers were missing in this draft

Round three (two picks) - Stuart Skinner, 78th overall - pick acquired from Arizona when the Oilers traded a third round pick (not their own, unknown) and Vancouver's fifth round pick (acquired for Philip Larsen) in exchange for Calgary's third round pick (acquired when they traded Michael Stone to the Flames)

Boy what a mouthful that was - sometimes draft picks become very well traveled. Anyway, unless you've been living under a rock, you should be well acquainted with the story of Skinner. He didn't move the needle much early on in his career, but earned a cup of coffee in the 2020-21 season when he was called up for one game. The following season he had 13 games with the Oilers after filling in for an injured Mike Smith.

In the 2022-23 season Skinner established himself as the majority partner in tandem, with a .914 save percentage and 2.73 Goals Against Average (GAA). He showed some inconsistency this past season but did end up with the majority of starts in the playoffs and was a key reason why the Oilers got so close to winning the cup last season - on his way he outdueled Oettinger and nearly outdueled Sergei Bobrokvsky in the process. Pretty impressive for a third round pick.

Hit or Miss? Hit.

Dmitri Samorukov, 84th overall

There's not much to say about Samorukov. This was the Oilers' own third round pick. After showing signs of being a puck moving blueliner in the OHL, Samorukov put up modest numbers in the AHL. Nonetheless he earned callups on two occasions, one each with the Oilers and St. Louis Blues, where he played a combined three games and put up no points in those games.

Samorukov's value to the Oilers would be more as a trade chip. He would go on to be traded to the St. Louis Blues straight up for the last choice of the first round, Kostin, who would go on to become a fan favourite bottom six forward in Edmonton before he became a luxury the Oilers couldn't afford and they had to trade him away.

Samorukov spent last season with the Penguins' farm team, putting up 15 points in 64 games before heading back to the KHL, where he spent one season with CSKA Moscow previously and will be going back there again. But even then he only put up a whopping eight points in 48 games for them the first time, so who knows if he even has a career in the KHL?

Hit or Miss? Miss

Who did the Oilers miss out on? No one. Only three impact players were even taken in this round, and the Oilers got one of them in Skinner. The other two were Morgan Geekie and Fabian Zetterlund, both of whom were taken before Skinner and Samorukov, so the Oilers never had a shot at either one.

Fourth round - Ostap Safin, 115th overall

Not much to say about Safin. He never got anywhere near the NHL, but showed potential when he flirted with the point per game mark in the OHL (58 points in 61 games). Spent two seasons in the Oilers organization, and just bounced around between the AHL and ECHL both seasons before heading back to Europe to resume his career there, first in the Czech pro leagues and then in the KHL.

Hit or Miss? Miss.

Who did the Oilers miss out on? Only one, Drake Batherson (Ottawa), currently patroling the top six forward corps for the Sens and one of their core players. A bit defensively questionable, though, as he's finished -25 and -9 in seasons where he scored 22 goals and 62 points, then 28 goals and 66 points respectively. Is that worth it for the offence he creates? After 309 NHL games, I guess the Sens have answered that question with a yes. Fun fact - Noel Hoefenmeyer, who currently plays in Bakersfield, was drafted by Arizona seven picks earlier in this round.

Fifth round - Kirill Maksimov, 146th overall

Maksimov most definitely didn't work out. The right winger showed flashes of being a power forward in the OHL where he finished his final season of junior with 79 points in 63 games, including 40 goals and 118 Penalty Minutes (PIMs) to boot. However, he only played one season for Bakersfield, finishing 5-8-13 with a -4 and 34 PIMs in 53 AHL games, before bolting back to Europe to finish his career, bouncing around between the KHL, the KHL's minor leagues, and the Finnish pro leagues.

Hit or miss? Miss

Did the Oilers miss out on anyone? No, only two players drafted after Maksimov in this round even played NHL games, and they played a whopping seven games combined and none of those games were played last season. No impact players of any consequence were even drafted in this round, so the Oilers weren't alone in missing on their pick.

Sixth round - Skyler Brind'Amour, 177th overall

I know what you're thinking - and yes, this was in fact the son of former NHL superstar Rod Brind'Amour, veteran of over 1,000 points in almost 1,500 games.

Brind'Amour chose to go the US College Route. Although his numbers showed potential as he had 20 and then 32 points in 41 games his last two seasons, the Oilers never signed him to an ELC and thus he became a free agent. He ended up playing last season with the the Charlotte Checkers, the farm team of the Florida Panthers, putting up a mere eight points in 54 games with a -16 rating. He's not listed as a non-rostered forward for the Panthers at this time, so I assume his contract wasn't renewed and he's a free agent at this time once again.

Hit or Miss? Miss, despite the genetic pedigree

Did the Oilers miss out on anyone? No. The closest thing to impact players were two bottom six forwards taken in this round, while none of them were taken after Brind'Amour.

Seventh round - Phil Kemp, 208th overall

Boy did the scouts ever find a reach here. I never really figured out what they found in him, as his numbers weren't all that impressive in any regard as he was coming up the ranks. But, I think they may have themselves a gem here.

Kemp is a stay at home blue liner, so you can't judge him based on his boxcars alone. My guess is he caught the attention of Oilers scouts when his +/- went from -16 to +7, while he progressed from the US National under-17 team to the US National under-18 team. He then went the US College route as well, playing at Yale University for three seasons, finishing with a +/- on the plus side of the ledger in two of those three seasons, while increasing his boxcars from a modest eight points in 26 games to 11 points in 32 games.

Kemp then went to the Swedish pro leagues while the pandemic lockdown was happening here, and put up those same boxcars but with a -15 this time - but, rookie pro season and all that. He then went to Bakersfield and looks to have flourished there, going from a +/- of +2 his first season to a career high of +13 last season. He got a cup of coffee last season and didn't put up any offence in that game but nor did he make a mistake either, finishing at 0, unusual for a player making his NHL debut.

The defenceman appears to have added an element of secondary offence to his game as well, as in his last two seasons with the Condors he has put up 21 and 15 points respectively. In fact, Kemp has actually grown into the "next man up" role with the Condors in terms of defencemen, now that Philip Broberg has made his way onto the roster full time. Kemp was also on the taxi squad for this past season's playoff run.

Once he can beat out Troy Stecher and Josh Brown for a roster spot, then he'll have made the NHL full time, and that might occur as soon as next season, you never know. Most 25-year-olds are usually off the farm team if they aren't pushing for a roster spot with the big club. So even if Kemp turns out to be a late bloomer, the Oilers obviously see something in him, and I can see why - at this point he looks like a less physical version of Vincent Desharnais, and will come just as cheaply.

Hit or Miss? Tough call, but I'm saying this is a hit because frankly only eight out of 31 players drafted in this round have even played NHL games. The fact that he can even still stick around the farm team and still have a shot at the NHL also says something about how the organization sees him.

Did the Oilers miss out on anyone? No, and no one of consequence was even drafted in this round. If Kemp does end up grabbing a spot in the bottom pairing he'll be the best player to come out this round in the draft.