Oilers stock up upfront on draft day

The Oiler prospect pool was looking a pretty strong going into the draft, with the likes of Noah Dobson, Ty Smith, Juuso Valimaki, Nicolas Beaudin, Ben Jones, and Cody Glass...however, GM Braithwaite noticed something about the pool, it was far too heavy on defenceman.

"It's great to have a solid D-core, and we've focused on that when building our team, however, scoring goals is still how you win hockey games, so we looked for guys who can do just that. We feel we added some offensive punch to the team."

The Oilers went into the draft with 7 picks, and made all seven picks.

The first pick was Arthur Kaliyev, a 6'2 winger who played for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL this year. Kaliyev posted a staggering 102 points this year, including 51 goals. He possesses above average size, an incredible shot, and has hockey sense in the offensive zone that would be the envy of most players.

"Kaliyev will need to improve his skating, there are also some off ice issues some scouts have brought up. However, scoring 50 goals in the OHL is difficult no matter how you look at it, and we feel we injected a lot of talent into the organization"

In the second round the Oilers took another Winger, Pavel Dorofeyev. Dorofeyev is a slim winger who played out of the MHL in Russia this year. at 6'0 Dorofeyev doesn't lack height, but needs to add on muscle as he's only 163 pounds. However, we saw a similiar Slim player in Elias Pettersen just win the Calder trophy. Dorofeyev will have time to add muscle, and his offensive ability is undeniable as he potted 31 points in 19 MHL games this year, while also scoring a couple points in the mens league in the KHL with limited ice time. We hope to ee him up in the KHL/VHL this year, displaying more of that offenive ability in a larger role for the team.

In the third round the Oilers took defenceman Danii Musyil, Musyil is a defenceman out of the MHL, he has good size, skates well, and plays the game like a modern defenceman.

The Oilers had three picks in the fourth round, They used the first pick to select Alex Beaucage. Beaucage is a large winger who scored 79 points in 68 this year in the QMJHL. He fit well with the Oilers mold they were trying for this draft. He also plays with Oilers defensive prospect Noah Dobson, and the two won the Memorial cup together this year.

The second pick the Oilers selected Antti Saarela. A Finnish winger who played in the top Finnish league for the majority of the year. He potted ten points.

With the last fourth round pick, the Oilers selected Vadim Zherenko, A Russian goalie who posted a .936 and a 2.29 GAA this year. The skill is there with this goalie, however, with all goalies you must show patience. The Russian system has been turning goalies out these past few years so we are hopeful for Zherenkos prospects.

The last pick saw the oilers draft Dmitri Voronkov, a large C/LW that played in the VHL this year. He had limited ice time, but still scored 14 points in Russias second best mens league. We believe there is a lot of potential in this player, and are excited to see him in a larger role

The Oilers have also made two trades recently. Sending UFA Alex Steen to Dallas for a 5th round pick in 2020 at the draft, as well as sending UFA rights to Soderberg to Detroit for a 2020th and Goaltender Cam Johnson. Soderberg was the longest tenured player in the Oilers Organization, and has played the last 6 years with the team.