Oilers must have lost Bill Scott’s lucky socks, fall to 10th overall

After the NHL Draft Lottery odds were finalized a couple of weeks ago, we knew what kind of work we had ahead of us if we were really going to #MakeItFive. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be this year as the Edmonton Oilers fell back a spot and will select 10th overall.

Heading into tonight’s lottery, the Oilers had an 18% chance of winning one of the three separate draws and selecting in the top three, but an 82% chance of picking within the 9-12 range. Personally, I wasn’t expecting much apart from having fun with the lead up and thought that there was no possible way that the lottery gods were going to smile on us yet again like they did in April of 2015. That said, there was still an outside chance that the Oilers were going to be able to pull of a lottery win and that hope was all I needed to keep me interested. Unfortunately, someone must have thrown away Bill Scott’s lucky socks because, for the second straight draft lottery, the Oilers fell back in their seeding after the lotteries were done.

At the end of the day, having the Oilers land within the 9-12 range was exactly what I was expecting and, while I was hopeful that they would defy the odds and win the lottery again it just wasn’t meant to be. Now the next question will be what will they do with this pick? Moving toward the Draft in June, it will be interesting to see whether or not Peter Chiarelli will look at moving it as part of a package for an established player that can help the team now, or will he head up to the podium and stock the cupboards for another day? There is an argument to be made on either side of this and, now that we know where the Oilers will be sitting on Draft day, it will be interesting to see how it shakes out with a fire burning underneath Peter Chiarelli’s seat.

Either way, now that we know the Oilers will be picking 10th we have the next two months to argue about what they should do with it. Personally, I think that the smarter move would be to use the pick and stock the cupboards moving forward, especially with another expansion draft coming, but Pistol Pete is on the hot seat and I can’t help but wonder if he’s more likely to move it if for no other reason than an attempt at a little self-preservation. If the Oilers miss the playoffs again or even get off to another slow start, Chiarelli would probably be shown the door and that, to me, makes it feel like he’ll be leaning towards making a deal for immediate help even if he never admits it. But you never know, maybe Carolina wins the right to draft Dhalin tonight and all of a sudden a guy like Justin Faulk shakes loose. I would certainly move the pick as part of a package for a guy like that. Like I said, there are arguments to be made on either side of the coin.

There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ still to be decided, but one thing is for sure, the next couple months just got a little bit more interesting now that the Oilers will be drafting close to the midway point of the first round. Trade? Use? Let me know in the comments what you guys think Chiarelli should do. And if you think they should use it then tell me who for. Need inspiration? Dusty put together a list of some of the defensive prospects that might fit within this range a week ago and will have a mock draft coming up on the site Monday morning. For now, we head into our Saturday night pondering the future and arguing the merits of using or trading the 10th overall pick.