When the Oilers drafted Mitch Moroz with the 32nd pick in the 2012 Entry Draft I thought they had just made a huge mistake. Everybody knew that organizationally they needed Defensemen (now we know they needed help at every single position) but the club had just passed up the chance to take Ryan Murray with the 1st Overall pick and took another high octane winger. The decision to take Yak was and is still a good one from my perspective but the Moroz pick has yet to prove one way or the other, though I have my doubts.
The Oil opted ultimately to pick another 6'3" 215lb Coke Machine on skates in Mitch Moroz who they believed was stuck buried deep on a stacked Oil Kings roster and hadnt yet shown his full potential. He had gone 66GP, 16-9-25 and 125PIM in his draft year. The next year he bumped that up to 69GP, 13-21-34 and 140PIM. This past season he almost doubled his offensive output to 70GP, 35-28-63 and 156PIM. That final flourish in his last WHL season can help the Oil breath a little easier about taking a guy who was ranked as the 72nd best North American skater by NHL central scouting, but they cant be all that comfortable with it.
One of the names Oiler fans were interested most in was Matt Finn, an offensive Defenseman playing for the Guelph storm who NHL central scouting had ranked 16th for North American skaters. In his draft year he went 61GP, 10-38-48 but he stands only 6 feet tall and less than 200lbs, so the Oilers overlooked him. This past season he was the 2nd highest scoring defender in the OHL, ahead of Nurse, ahead of Ekblad. He might turn out to be one of those "what if" players that all fans point to when they think about the mistakes made at the draft table, but its still too early to tell.
Now the player the Oilers chose and the one they probably should have will meet up in the Memorial Cup Final as the Oil Kings take on the Guelph Storm. Mitch Moroz had an impressive WHL playoffs, tallying almost a point per game but hasnt been nearly as effective in the Mem Cup. Finn, on the other hand has 4 points in 3 games and is a +8 at the tournament.
I have extreme doubts about how well Moroz will do at the next level but he has NHL size, he's had quality coaching, and for what it's worth he's played in a checking line almost his whole career so he should have a clue about what to do in his own end. If that can translate into a half decent career on the bottom 6 for the Oilers somewhere down the line I will be happy, but I'll probably always wonder if he would have been available in the 3rd or 4th rounds and whether that 32nd pick could have been been used on someone with more upside.
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