Revisiting the 2019 NHL entry draft - how did the Oilers make out?

From the team's perspective, it would also mark the last time the Oilers finish the season outside of the playoffs in the Connor McDavid era. Also, little did we know that the covid-19 pandemic was coming down the pike and this would be the last time for the next three seasons that the NHL would play a full season. It's also worth noting that since this is the five year mark which is the average amount of time it takes for a prospect to join the NHL full time, this is the last time I will use a hit or miss rating system, rating the next four seasons I will be using trending up/trending down.

If you want to see how the previous drafts went you can see the 2015 draft here, the 2016 draft here, the 2017 draft here, and the 2018 draft here.

Round one - Philip Broberg, eighth overall

Broberg this past season wrapped up what I believe, one way or another, will be a regular NHLer next season. Broberg was drafted for the D corps out of the Swedish pro leagues. He's spent the last three seasons cycling between Bakersfield and the Oilers, putting up 2-11-13 in 81 regular season games for the Oilers, and no offence at all in his first 10 playoff games over the previous two seasons prior to this one.

However, Broberg was put on the taxi squad. Then when both Cody Ceci and Vincent Desharnais struggled in these playoffs Broberg was promoted as the next man up to the squad, and this was where he started to make this mark, going 2-1-3 in 10 playoff games alongside Darnell Nurse on the second pairing, even scoring a couple of key goals in the Cup finals.

Under normal circumstances, we'd call this a solid prospect who will be cheap puck moving help for the next two or three seasons but then the St. Lous Blues dropped a bomb on the Oilers by doing this. I write this on the Sunday afternoon that is two days before the deadline that Bowman has to match both offer sheets, so there's a chance that two days from now Broberg will be a St. Louis Blue.

Regardless, I'll keep an eye on this and report in on it in later blogs. For now, let's call this a win as the Oilers drafted an NHL regular with solid potential to play in the top four, maybe even the top pairing.

Hit or miss? Hit - too bad we might lose him soon.

Who did the Oilers miss out on? Only one player could arguably be called Broberg's equal in terms of who came after him, Cole Caufield (Montreal), who is currently patroling RW for the Habs on their first line. Of course, had the Oilers gone this route, we would've never known how good Zach Hyman could be occupying that spot next to Connor McDavid. Caufield is a solid player, no question, but he isn't a 50 goal scorer like Hyman is. Other than Caufield, it's mostly just nobodies and bottom six forwards. For the sake of curiosity, there were several good players drafted prior to Broberg that the Oilers didn't have a chance to grab - Jack Hughes was the #1 pick (New Jersey), followed by Kaapo Kakko (NY Rangers), and Kirby Dach (Chicago), who would go on to be traded to Montreal and now occupy the other RW spot in the Habs' top six forward corps. Interesting how Montreal managed to grab two top six RWers for themselves both from the same draft. What are the odds? Also let's not forget Moritz Seider (Detroit), the next German superstar and a guy who looked up to Leon Draisaitl.