Just over a year after coming oh so close to winning the sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history, the Oilers had three first-round picks in the 2007 draft. The sixth overall pick was used to select Sam Gagner, the 15th overall pick (acquired in the Ryan Smyth trade) was used to select Alex Plante, and the 30th overall pick in the Chris Pronger trade was packaged to move up to the 21st overall pick. The Oilers selected Riley Nash, who elected not to sign with the Oilers.

That kick-started a trend of poor drafting. Over the next seven drafts, the Oilers had 47 picks after the first round, with only 17 of those players playing an NHL game. Of those 17 players, only nine played 100 or more games, with Anton Lander, Tyler Pitlick, and Jujhar Khaira being the most notable names.

Martin Gernát was one of those 30 players who never appeared in an NHL game. However, he was involved in one of the best trades during the Decade of Darkness.

The left-shot defenceman was drafted in the fifth round of the 2011 draft, then came to North America in time to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2011-12. Gernát spent another season with the Oil Kings before playing parts of three seasons with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate Oklahoma City Barons.

On Feb. 29, 2016, the Oilers sent the Slovak and a 2016 fourth-round pick to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Pat Maroon. Not only was this a great trade for the Oilers, but Maroon benefited greatly from this trade.

Maroon became a regular as a 25-year-old during the 2013-14 season, scoring 11 goals and 29 points in 62 games with the Ducks. He set a career-high in points in 2014-15, scoring nine goals and 34 points in 71 games, but regressed in 2015-16. After just four goals and 13 points in 56 games, the Ducks traded the struggling winger to the Oilers.

The power forward immediately found chemistry with then rookie, Connor McDavid. In the 16 games following the trade, Maroon scored eight goals and 14 points, and only got better in 2016-17. The 2016-17 season was Maroon’s lone full season that he played with the Oilers, scoring a career-best 27 goals along with 42 points, then added another three goals and eight points in 13 playoff games.

Maroon entered the 2017-18 season as a pending UFA, scoring 14 goals and 30 points alongside McDavid. But on February 26th, the Oilers sent the St. Louis product to the New Jersey Devils for J.D. Dudek and a third-round pick.

As for the rest of this tree, it didn’t amount to much. Dudek played just five games in the American Hockey League, spending much of his professional career in the ECHL and Great Britain.

Less than a month later, the Oilers flipped that pick, trading it to the Philadelphia Flyers for Cooper Marody. To this point, Marody has played just seven NHL games, mostly recently picking up an assist in one game during the 2021-22 season.

The Oilers could’ve and probably should’ve done better with this trade, or better yet, re-sign Maroon. Still, they found a productive winger who helped lead the team into the playoffs for the time in 11 seasons.

But thanks to his tenure with the Oilers, Maroon became a regular and went on to hoist three Stanley Cups. After the Devils lost in the first round, Maroon signed with the St. Louis Blues for the 2018-19 season. The Blues went on to have one of the best Cinderella runs in sport history, going from the bottom of the league in early January to winning it all.

Maroon signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2019-20 season, just in time to see the Florida-based team win back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Lightning went back to the Finals in 2022, ultimately losing to the Colorado Avalanche.

He spent one more season with the Lightning, before playing with the Minnesota Wild and Boston Bruins in 2023-24, then the Chicago Blackhawks in 2024-25 before announcing his retirement. In a way, history repeated itself as Maroon was teammates with another young superstar named Connor, Connor Bedard.

As for Gernát, he’s played overseas since 2016-17, playing in Czechia, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Russia, all while representing the Slovaks at the last two Olympics.

Although he never played an NHL game, Gernát has gone on to win a bronze medal, as well as four league championships. He’s won back-to-back Gagarin Cups in Russia alongside Maxim Berezkin with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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