The 2023 NHL Draft is just around the corner, and chatter has begun about who the Edmonton Oilers will pick with their first-round pick. The initial draft hype wasn’t quite the same this year in Oil Country as fans spent a good portion of their spring heading into another long Oilers playoff run.
It’s a little different than it was 11 years ago when the 2012 NHL Draft was all anyone talked about in Edmonton for months before that. There was nothing else during the 2011-12 season to get excited about with the Oilers finishing with the second worst NHL record. Once Edmonton was awarded the 1st Overall Choice Award Winning the lottery projectAnticipation reached a new frantic level.
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Spring 2012 ended up being the sixth consecutive season without NHL playoff hockey in Edmonton, but there was reason for optimism that the slump would soon end. The Oilers’ lineup already included first overall picks from the previous two draft picks, Taylor Hall in 2010 and Ryan Nugent Hopkins in 2011, and they were about to add an unprecedented third consecutive draft pick to the mix.
With five of the first 93 draft picks and seven overall, Edmonton was preparing for two transformational days in the NHL Draft on June 22 and 23, 2012 in Pittsburgh. But looking back 10 years later, it’s now safe to say that the only thing the 2012 draft turned out to be for the Oilers was just another questionable date during “The Decade of Darkness” (Edmonton’s 10 consecutive seasons missed the playoffs from 2007 to 2016).
Related: Revisiting the disastrous 1990 Edmonton Oilers draft
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By the numbers, Edmonton’s performance in the 1990 draft is by far the worst. On that day, the Oilers made 11 draft picks, none of whom had ever skated in a single bout in the NHL. This is a record that still stands, as no other NHL team has had so many picks in a single draft without at least one making it to the NHL.
However, in 1990, the Oilers were just off winning their fifth Stanley Cup in seven years, and their own pick in the 1990 draft came at the end of each round. Considering what was at stake in 2012, and Edmonton’s high draft pick status, that year’s draft ranks as one of the biggest flops in franchise history, and it started at the top.
First round: Neil Yakupov
Edmonton General Manager Steve Tambellini kicked off the 2012 draft by announcing that with the first overall pick, the Oilers were taking Neil Yakubov, forward from the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). broadcast on TSNPierre Maguire raised the red flag on Yakupov’s goalless run with Team Russia at the 2012 World Junior Championships. The commentator’s concern proved justified.
Yakupov actually got off to a strong start in Edmonton, though, as he played all 48 games in the shutdown-shortened 2012-13 campaign, leading the NHL rookie team with 17 goals and tying Jonathan Huberdeau for the rookie points lead, with 31. Incredibly, That season as a 19-year-old was the height of Yakubov’s success, who in five more NHL seasons scored an average of just over 12 goals per 82 games.
Just prior to the 2016-17 campaign, Edmonton signed Yakubov to the St. Louis Blues, who subsequently chose not to re-sign with the Russian at the end of the season. He then joined the Colorado Avalanche for 2017-18 on a one-year deal that turned out to be his final NHL contract. He left the NHL after scoring 62 goals and 136 points in 350 games over six seasons and has been in the Continental Hockey League (KHL) ever since.
In a recent THW article, Yakupov was named the sixth worst draft pick of all time. The facts converge: He played the fewest NHL games of any skater drafted first overall between 1982 and 2017, and of all players drafted first overall between 1992 and 2018, he played the third fewest games with the team that drafted him . The player that many believed would bring Edmonton back to the postseason, he never appeared in an NHL playoff game.
Second round: Mitch Moroz
In their first pick on Day 2 of the 2012 draft, the Oilers stormed off the board to select winger Mitch Moroz from the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings.
There was a lot to admire about Moroz, who would later prove instrumental in the Oil Kings winning the 2014 Memorial Cup. With his style of play, leadership by example, and most of all, unafraid to go to the front of the net where he scored the ugliest goals, he reminded fans of beloved Oilers major Ryan Smith.
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But Smith has spent nearly two decades in the NHL, while Moroz has never played an NHL game. He ended up spending three seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL), and eventually his rights were dealt to the Arizona Coyotes, who did not extend a qualifying offer for the 6-foot-3 forward when his base contract expired post-contract. 2016-17 season.
Moroz played three more years of professional hockey in the English Football League, before retiring. He discussed his decision to stay away from hockey, detailing his mental health struggles and physical injuries, poignantly. Appearing in Hockey 2 Hell And Back podcast last year.
Third round: Johar Khaira and Daniel Zarkov
with 63Research and development Beck, Edmonton has captured Johar Khaira, who was coming off his second Junior A season with the Prince George Spruce Kings of the British Columbia Hockey League. Of the Oilers’ 2012 draft class, the 6-foot-4 forward has played the most games in Edmonton and is one of only two to have been in the NHL this season.
Khaira made his NHL debut in 2015-16 and became a regular in the Edmonton squad two years later. He appeared in 258 games over six seasons with the Oilers, scoring 24 goals and adding 39 assists. After the 2020-21 season, he signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks but missed most of 2021-22 due to injury.
Edmonton earned the second pick in the third round, 91st overall, and used it to grab Daniel Zarkov from the OHL’s Belleville Bulls. The left winger did not sign with the Oilers and ended up returning to Russia for a stint in the KHL. He last played in 2016-2017.
Fourth round: Erik Gustafsson
As befits a 2012 draft bid, the Oilers brilliantly unearthed a hidden gem when they selected Erik Gustafsson at number 93, but then baffled the failure to sign the Swedish defender, who continued to play in his home country after being selected by Edmonton. When his rights to the Oilers expired in 2015, Gustaffson signed with the Chicago Blackhawks, and the rest, as they say, is history.
He has now played parts of six seasons in the NHL, totaling 191 points in 379 games. In 2018-19, Gustafsson scored 17 goals and 60 points, ranking third and sixth respectively among national basketball players. In 2021, he went to the Stanley Cup Final with the Montreal Canadiens. Now he’s back with the Blackhawks.
Round 5: Joey Lalegia
With the 123rd pick, the Oilers selected Joey Lalegia, a University of Denver defenseman. He put up some big offensive numbers in the AHL, including scoring 20 goals for the Bakersfield Condors in 2016-17, but he never got into a game for the parent club. After his Oilers contract expired, he signed with the Blues in 2018 and played two more seasons in the AHL. He has spent the last two years in Sweden.
Sixth round: John McCarron
Edmonton final pick, 153Research and development Overall, the 2012 Cornell University forward was John McCarron. The Michigan native never signed with the Oilers and has spent most of his career in the ECHL, just finishing a sixth season with the Florida Everblades.
What could it have been
Hindsight is 20-20 of course, but there are a number of players the Oilers could have picked in 2012 who all became stars, most notably goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (picked 19 players)y Overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning), who already looks like he’s on his way to Hall-of-Fame. Others passed by Edmonton include Morgan Rielly (5yToronto Maple Leafs), Philip Forsberg (11yWashington Capitals), Thomas Hertel (17ySan Jose Sharks), Frederick Andersen (87yAnaheim Ducks), Jacob Slavin (120yCarolina Hurricanes), and Conor Hellebock (130yWinnipeg Jets) to pick a few names from a list Oilers fans might prefer not to see.
How bad was the 2012 draft for the Oilers? They made someone’s grave mistake and made it their own mistake, Trading picks 16 and 33 in 2015 for the New York Islanders To acquire the 2012 fourth overall draft pick, Griffin Reinhart, in an all-time infamous trade. He played just 37 career games in the NHL and only fit in 29 with the Oilers before the Vegas Golden Knights selected him in the 2017 expansion draft. He spent the last season in the UK with the Belfast Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League.
A decade later, the combined NHL stats for Edmonton’s class of 2012 were 944 games (511 with the Oilers), 121 goals (74), and 359 points (174). Even more damning is the fact that none of the players were still in Edmonton last season playing a role in the team’s breakthrough after years of trying to get back into the mix of championship contenders.
when the 10thy The anniversary of this year’s draft falls in 2032, and the oil-producing nation hopes to look back on it with more fondness.