Good, rational organizations like Boston, Detroit or Los Angeles would never keep a kid like Leon Draisaitl in their lineup as a 19-year-old, right? That “fact” is always delivered with a wink of superiority, as if the people in those front offices are ingrained in selflessness, habitually putting a young man’s developmental welfare ahead of their own job security.
Of course, those are good, solid organizations that never draft in the Top 10, the way the Edmonton Oilers have for the past six years. It’s easy to say — isn’t it? — when the kid you draft doesn’t have a prayer of making your Top 10 ranked NHL team.
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So, what happened when the good organizations weren’t so good, and drafted in the Top 5? Or when they traded for a Top 5 pick?
Well, the Bruins picked Tyler Seguin second overall with that draft choice acquired from Toronto in 2010, and played him right away. They also chose Phil Kessel at No. 5 in 2006 — played him right away. The Red Wings were a terrible team that earned the right to pick Steve Yzerman fourth overall in 1983. He walked right into Joe Louis Arena. When Drew Doughty fell to the last place Kings back in 2008? You guessed it.
Funny how the developmental standards of those clubs weren’t quite so lofty in those days, as each one of those players walked right on to the NHL roster the following October.
Today, one of the best drafting and developing teams in hockey is the Anaheim Ducks. Bob Murray is a top general manager, and his right-hand man, David McNab, could find talent blindfolded. But the Ducks are no different than Edmonton.
They gave Hampus Lindholm (sixth overall in 2012) just 44 games in the American Hockey League before he began his NHL career the following season at age 19 – same as Draisaitl. Had their only option been returning Lindholm to junior the Ducks likely would have put him on their roster, as evidenced two years before when Cam Fowler went right from the draft floor to Anaheim’s blue-line at the Honda Center.
The point is, there is annually a lot of high-horse rhetoric from across the hockey world when a team like Edmonton decides to keep a high-drafted player in the big leagues rather than send him back to junior. The fact is, pretty much every other organization makes the same decision.
Certainly, you can chide the Oilers for their lack of progress as an organization. Go ahead — that criticism is well earned. But chances are you’re inside a glass house if you are decrying the decision to keep big centre Draisaitl up for his tenth game Wednesday night against Nashville.
Full disclosure: I am one who thinks Draisaitl should go back to junior. He has only played two seasons in the Western Hockey League and has plenty left to accomplish there. But I don’t work for the team or have a vested interest in its record. For that reason, anyone close to this Oilers team has known for well over a week that there is no chance Draisaitl wasn’t going to play that game against the Predators, so let’s drop the topic.
The conversation now shifts to this: how many young players have been damaged by the decision to keep them up at age 18 or 19?
The old scout’s maxim is, “I’ve never seen a player hurt by spending more time in junior. But I have seen ones who stayed up when they shouldn’t have.” Well, when you’re talking about Top 5 picks, let’s name a few names.
Steven Stamkos. Taylor Hall. Nathan MacKinnon. John Tavares. Victor Hedman. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Patrick Kane. Seguin. Jordan Staal. Have any of those players’ careers been damaged by the fact they played right away?
Sure, you can find a few who were set back. Nino Niederreiter was mishandled by the Islanders. He may be one. Are Jeff Skinner’s concussion issues partly due to being “rushed” by Carolina? Perhaps. But as a rookie Skinner played all 82 games and won the Calder. The concussions came later on.
Mikhail Grigorenko, a No. 12 draft pick in Buffalo, surely should have been sent back right away, and eventually was returned to junior by the Sabres. But there’s a big difference between a 12th overall pick and a No. 3, like Draisaitl.
Don’t believe for a second that, if the Oilers had four NHL centres in their lineup, Draisaitl wouldn’t be heading back to Prince Albert. They sent Darnell Nurse back to junior earlier this month, not because he lags behind Draisaitl, but because the Oilers have six NHL defencemen in Edmonton and plenty of reinforcements in the minors.
“We do have depth at the position,” head coach Dallas Eakins said when Nurse was assigned. “So, what’s right for him will be right for the organization in the long run.”
In Draisaitl’s case, with only two legit NHL centreman in the organization, what’s right for the organization comes first.
It’s the way it works in Edmonton, and why not? That’s the way it works in every other town as well.