Stu MacGregor generally gets a lot of credit for his work since taking over as the point-man for the Edmonton Oilers at the NHL Entry Draft. I thought it might be interesting to revisit his selections and compare them to the players selected in the same range of picks, to evaluate how his group has done versus other NHL scouting groups.

We start with the 2008 Draft.

The following charts compare 10 players: the four players selected before the Oilers made their choice, and the five players taken afterward. This means that a fifth-place ranking should be considered the break-even line for each selection.

The ratings are subjective, but not to an extreme degree; it isn’t hard to differentiate between a good AHL’er and a lousy college player.

Eberle was a very strong selection here. At this juncture, he and Carlson are clearly the cream of the crop, with a quartet of quality young players behind the.  Interestingly, the Capitals rolled both box-cars (Carlson) and snake eyes (Gustafsson) here.

Motin’s not a breakout pick the way Sateri or Jordan are, but he is one of five players who have shown they can play at a high professional level. The drop-off from five to six on this list is quite large.

Tomas Kubalik has a bit of a jump on the rest of this group. After him are six prospects (including Cornet) with very little separating them. Nobody in this group is a blue-chipper.

I had expected Hartikainen to dominate this group, but he’s behind two exceptional prospects: Joel Chouinard, who had a breakout season last year and has been shockingly good in the AHL, and Mike Murphy, who looks like a very good goaltending prospect based on his AHL numbers. Hartikainen and Crawford are both quite good AHL players at this point and there isn’t much separating them.

Bartkowksi and Eriksson are the players worth talking about on this list; after them are a collection of long-shots and extremely limited players. Bendfeld falls into the latter category.