Revisiting the 2023 NHL entry draft - how did the Oilers make out?

Overall verdict

This draft may be remembered more for the picks that were given up in trade than for the picks that were made. After all, the Oilers only made three selections out of seven and dealt away four picks, three of which were to help the present (trading for Mattias Ekholm, Derick Brassard, and Nick Bjugstad), while one helps the future (replenishing the prospect pool with Jayden Grubbe). The Oilers were in win-now mode at this point so drafting took more of a backseat to improving the team now.

It kind of sucks that the Oilers gave away Kesselring now that they've lost Philip Broberg to an RFA offer sheet, he would've been a good candidate for his roster spot. But, I don't blame Holland for this - after all, at the time the right side of the D corps was awfully crowded, and Kesselring was buried on the depth chart underneath many other players, including Vincent Desharnais who at the time had just recently become an NHL regular. At the time he was very much expendable. We had no way of knowing that we would lose Desharnais to free agency, Broberg to an offer sheet, and Cody Ceci to a bad second half of the season and subsequent cap casualty trade.

Mind you if Kesselring was still in the organization, he'd still have to contend with Ty Emberson, Travis Dermott, and Josh Brown - that's lesser competition but I'm still not sure he'd have a surefire roster spot on this team. Nonetheless, you have to admire how Arizona made out in this trade - they brought Bjugstad back after those playoffs in free agency, and then with Kesselring's emergence they got the better of us in this trade. Dineen is showing right now that best case scenario he's a late bloomer, and while the Oilers plugged the hole at forward in trade at the deadline with Adam Henrique, it's one of those things where if we had access to the future we might've held onto Kesselring instead of trading him.

Grubbe is being used to plug holes on the farm team, and while he still needs work, he might be a future bottom six forward.

As far as the picks themselves, it's not too shabby. Two players trending up and only one trending down is not too bad for only three picks in the draft, especially when two of those picks were at the bottom of the order.

Bonus material

Oilers make three additions to their player development ranks. My colleague Paul has already explained this pretty well so I'm not going to go too far into it. One interesting tidbit - Tobias Salmelainen is the brother of ex-Oiler Tony Salmelainen. Salmelainen didn't have much of an NHL career and was more valuable to the Oilers as a trade chip, as he would be traded away to Chicago at the 2006 trade deadline, helping to bring over blueliner Jaroslav Spacek who would be a key depth defender in the Oilers Cinderella run to the Cup finals that year. Oh, what might've been if Dwayne Roloson hadn't gotten injured...

Markus Niemelainen signs in Germany. Previously a third round pick in 2016, Niemelainen went on to play 43 NHL games for the Oilers over two seasons and two extended callups. He didn't impress enough to stay and spent the last year of his contract buried in Bakersfield making an NHL paycheque as he was on a one way contract. Due to the fact he hadn't played 80 games, Niemelainen was only a Group Six free agent rather than a full fledged Restricted Free Agent. Can't say I blame the Oilers for not re-signing him considering how many other guys have passed him on the depth chart.

Oilers sign Travis Dermott to a PTO. Dermott is a natural left side blueliner but can play the right side as well. He played two years in junior with McDavid in Erie so there's a McDavid connection there. Dermott had an off year last season with the Arizona Coyotes, putting up only 2-5-7 in 50 games to go with a -14 - although worth noting that the last mark is a career worst for him. On paper, he's a fairly vanilla player but considering the depth on this team I can see why he'd want to see if he could resurrect his career here.

James Stefan signed to an ELC. You may know Stefan as the son of Patrik Stefan, who suited up for the Dallas Stars and embarrassingly missed an empty net in a regular season game against the Oilers, then subsequently coughed up the puck and Ales Hemsky scored for the Oilers off the rush. This is a fantastic pickup by Bowman and his staff. His stats from junior are actually mind boggling. Personally, I can't believe the guy has gone undrafted in three seasons - after all, he's played for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL and during his last three seasons put up point totals of 79 (including 34 goals in 68 games), 64 (including 22 goals in 64 games) and a whopping 101 (!) (including 50 goals in 67 games).

How do you put up 50 goals and 101 points in junior and not even have a team spend a seventh round pick on you? Seems crazy to me. However, GM Stan Bowman, just like Holland before him, prides himself on finding players in unusual places, or like Stefan guys who are overlooked by other clubs. Regardless of how or why Stefan was missed, the Oilers gain here is the loss of 31 other teams. Couldn't come at a better time, either, as the Oilers are in need of prospects at all positions. Hopefully, James has a better career than his dad did, the Nail Yakupov of the late 90s before Nail Yakupov came along.