In perhaps the biggest upset of their season, the Oilers somehow lost the Draft Lottery and fell to drafting 10th overall this June.

As I write this, we are waiting for the NHL to announce the final order of the top draft positions. It’s either Carolina, Buffalo, or Montreal. I hope it’s not Buffalo.

The 2018 draft has been described by some as being 9 deep in high end talent, but the Oil are now sitting in 10th. The Oilers now must choose between hoping that someone in their top 9 falls down to them at 10 (pretty likely) or trading the pick completely to get a player ready to contribute (most likely).

It should be noted that Chiarelli has never been afraid of trading picks for players he thinks can help today. It should also be noted that he thought Ryan Strome would be a top 6 forward, Griffin Reinhart was worth a mid-round first, and that Larsson would be a top pairing defender. His willingness to deal isn’t the problem here.

Given how much pressure Chiarelli is under to turn the Oilers into a competitive team ASAP, it seems most likely that he will be looking to move that pick. The Hurricanes, Rangers, Canadiens, and Sabres may all be looking to add to their rebuilding efforts this summer. The 10th overall pick should have some value on the market.

Then again, the Oilers could also package the 1st with a player like Lucic or Russell to find a more willing trade partner (assuming the players waive their NMCs/NTCs). It’s not entirely out of the question for the Oilers to seek flexibility in their cap now while there’s still hope.

The Oil also happen to have one of the worst prospect pools in the NHL, so using the pick the way it was intended is also perfectly acceptable option. Edmonton has Kailer Yamamoto, Tyler Benson, and Ethan Bear heading up its system. After them it’s a lot of long shots. A 10th overall pick at pretty much any position is defensible, but if that pick happened to be a RHD it would be fantastic.

This thing can go any direction, but if I were a betting man I’d say that pick is as good as gone. Chiarelli is scrambling for his job and he needs to find solutions to fix the problems he made. We shall see.

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