NHL teams need players during the season for various reasons. Most recalls from the Bakersfield Condors are due to injury, but sometimes performance (poor by the NHL player, brilliant by the AHL man) forces the issue. A productive farm system can deliver impact players over a decade. Not 25, but as is shown here, it’s possible to deliver Charlie Huddy, Andy Moog, Steve Smith, Esa Tikkanen and Kelly Buchberger in a 10-year period. Is that any good?

THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY

This is the first 10 years, and represents the team building I remember most fondly. Glen Sather and Barry Fraser accomplished much together, some of it reflected in these names. Walt Poddubny and others were solid trade assets, while the names above who won multiple Stanleys hung around and thrived. Music!

In many ways, the second decade was more important for the Oilers. They needed players. You can see Slats was trading so fast he couldn’t keep track of the good, bad and brilliant, but this is a reflection of a lush development system. I love the look of this decade.

Again we see strong development skills by the organization. Shawn Horcoff and Fernando Pisani were not high picks, but had skills and real intelligence. When Kevin Lowe took over, the team eschewed an AHL team for a time, and that impacted the last portion of the decade. Many names here did not develop as hoped.

This decade should have been far more productive, as the Oilers specifically devoted the 2010 and 2011 drafts to a strong rebuild. The results are here (Oscar Klefbom, Tyler Pitlick, Brandon Davidson) but there were draft misses and this generation of Oilers talent was star-crossed and that’s for sure. This generation even had a coach who was the equal of Claude Julien (who coached the early 2000’s Hamilton Bulldogs) in Todd Nelson. He should have an NHL job, still waiting. This decade is disappointing, I don’t see a way to frame it any other way.

At first blush, this decade looks like a winner, and it will be but the Oilers have bled profusely due to slow-playing talent and giving NHL agents a window of opportunity. This isn’t about the offer sheet rage though, today’s subject is development on the farm. Evan Bouchard leads a fantastic group, and the first three years of this decade are Sather-like. Seriously. Major talents. Mike Kesselring is the sixth-best player in that group over a three-year period.

What does it all mean? The Oilers have great amateur scouts. Stan Bowman would be wise to sign some college free agents, CHL free agents and Euro free agents this spring. Listen to his scouts, sign these men. The alternative is on display in Bakersfield, and it is a disaster.

Today on the Lowdown we’ll discuss that brilliant game versus the Kraken and what may come in the days to come for the Oilers. We’ll chat with Rachel Doerrie, CTO of Betalytics and Host of Puck Social will join us talk about Edmonton’s weaknesses and how to overcome them. Jason Gregor will pop in to chat about the Oilers this week, including a fairly long and impressive list of injured players who fans want to hear about in terms of return date. We’ll have Declan Krueger to give us MMA and March madness intel, and more!.  

I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.