NHL Standings Basement Arms Race:Leafs, Oilers, Coyotes, Sabres

NHL draft number one pick Connor McDavid at the Edmonton Oilers rookie camp. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

#28 Edmonton Oilers

After a run to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2005-06 season, the Edmonton Oilers have been through a 9 season playoff drought. After attempts to retool the team between the 2006-07 and 2008-09 seasons, the Oilers sunk to last place in the Western Conference in 2009-10, while embarking on a massive rebuild. While the fans suffered with 9 disappointing seasons, the Oilers were rewarded with a series of incredible draft picks, including 4 first overall. Most recently, the Edmonton Oilers finished 28^th place in the standings with 62 points.

It has been a long rebuild, but incredibly fruitful in terms of obtaining talent. The Oilers started to put together the core of this team back in 2008 with the selection of Jordan Eberle 22^nd overall. This was followed up with 3 first overall draft picks including, Taylor Hall in 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 2011 and Nail Yakupov in 2012.

While the Oilers amassed some elite offensive talent early on, they had inexperienced coaches while remaining weak on defense and in net. These are two positions that take longer to develop, and this extended the length of the rebuild. Fortunately, it may have been all worthwhile after obtaining another first overall draft pick in 2015, being the generational talent Connor McDavid.

“A glass of wine or a beer, and I think in two years they win the cup. That may be a little eager, but I don’t think more than four.” Ron MacLean, Sportscaster

This offseason, there has been many other changes within the Oilers organization; the most notable additions were Peter Chiarelli as GM and Head Coach Todd McLellan. The Oilers also opted to shore up their defense by trading for Eric Gryba and the prospect Griffin Reinhart. Most importantly, they filled the largest defensive gap by signing the veteran defenseman Andrej Sekera. Lastly, the Oilers also improved the goaltending by trading for Cam Talbot as a potential starter and signing Anders Nilsson for depth.

In total, the Oilers have built the team around a core of high-end talent under 25 years of age. This includes 4 first overall draft picks, 6 top 5 draft picks, 7 top 10 picks, 9 in the first round and 3 in the second round. In comparison, the Oilers are light on second round picks and total pool of talent. Arguably, depth players are much easier to obtain than the elite talent, which puts the Oilers in an enviable position.

Next: The Arizona Coyotes