DRAFT: Oilers have all options open at the 2023 NHL Draft

EDMONTON, AB - All options are on the table when it comes to Tyler Wright and the Edmonton Oilers at the 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville next weekend.

The Oilers will enter the event with the fewest number of picks in franchise history, with only the 56th-overall pick, and a sixth and seventh rounder lining their pre-draft coffer. Barring an unforeseen deal, next Wednesday's day one of the NHL Draft will be the first time the Oilers have not picked in the first round since 2006 when they took defenceman Jeff Petry 45th overall as their opening selection.

For Wright, the Oilers Director of Amateur Scouting and Player Personnel, it will be the first time in over a decade of scouting he will be working a draft without a number-one pick.

"It is a little different," Wright said to 630 CHED's Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now. "[We] don't have a lot of picks, but at the end of the day, we're still grinding it forward and trying to be prepared for whatever gets thrown at us, and we have to be. Maybe we'll have less picks, maybe we'll have more picks. I'm not sure, but we're prepared for it."

The Oilers will be looking for opportunities at the draft -- whether it's moving down to recoup some of the picks traded over the last few years or continue to try and add pieces to a nearly finalized main roster that is on the cusp of competing for a Stanley Cup.

The prep work is being done for all scenarios. For Wright, his focus is on finding players the staff feels comfortable taking with their remaining selections in order to help the Oilers in the long term. Whether he gets that opportunity, is entirely up in the air.

"I think we're open for really any scenario. I've had some conversations on both ends of it, so I think we're just trying to make sure that we give ourselves options," Wright said. "If the second-round pick can help us, say September 1st or October 1st, I think that's in play. If it's not in play and our cluster of guys has moved on, obviously we're going to have to wait for 55 guys to go before us, a trade back scenario is always an opportunity. We're hopeful that there's a player there that we like that slides -- there usually is. We just got to make sure it's the right pick."

The Oilers find themselves with only three picks courtesy of a flurry of moves aimed at giving this team the best chance in the short term to win the Stanley Cup. Their 2023 first-round pick - along with 2022's top selection Reid Schaefer - are currently the property of the Nashville Predators after the deadline deal that saw Mattias Ekholm become an Oiler.

Edmonton's third and fourth round picks were also recent NHL Trade Deadline bargaining chips. They were moved in the deals that saw Nick Bjugstad and Derrick Brassard arrive from Arizona and Philadelphia respectively. As much as Wright would love to be restocking the Oilers cupboards, he understands and supports the team's goals in their current window of opportunity.

"We're [the scouting staff] in this to win it just as much as anybody within the organization and if that means that we have to put in a player or a pick for that matter, obviously the return was Ekholm, he really helped solidify our blue line. I think he helped Bouchard become a better player as well.

"It's hard to see these young kids move on, but at the end of the day, we're trying to win the Stanley Cup. We believed at that time that it was the right move and he's got a couple more years left on his contract. I think that was big, it wasn't for a rental. So, we're just going to find a way to find some more players to the draft here."

Even without having an abundance of picks, the tireless hours of scouting never truly go to waste. A recent example for the Oilers is the acquisition of centre Jayden Grubbe from the New York Rangers last month. Edmonton picked up the 20-year-old three-year captain of the Red Deer Rebels for their fifth-round pick in next week's draft and promptly signed him to a three-year, entry-level contract.

Grubbe would have been eligible to re-enter the draft had the Oilers not traded and signed him, and the scouting staff felt strongly enough about the Calgary product that they would have been willing to select him with the pick sent to the Rangers, so they just accelerated the process with the deal.

"We've traded a lot of picks here in the last couple of years. We try to get creative a little bit on the open market through college, in Europe, where we're trying to maybe get some more players. Obviously, we went out and traded our fifth for Jayden Grubbe," Wright said. "We made a decision that if he was there in the fifth round that we would take him. We had the opportunity to get him signed, so just another big six-foot-three centreman [who is] right-handed. Those fit the bill a little bit where we were, I would say, lacking through the organization and that's why we made that trade."

When it comes to the Oilers sixth and seventh round picks, currently slated to be selections 186 and 216, Edmonton's brass will be focused on trying to identify the hidden gems that can make or break a draft class.

"I think you can go back through every draft that's ever been had, and there are players that were available in the mid-rounds and the late-rounds and the seconds and the thirds -- and there are guys that should have went up higher than they were in every draft," Wright said. "That's our main focus. If there are going to be players available."

"I think that's the beauty of the hard work," he added. "The digging and the grinding and the relationships that you've built over the course of years and winters all across the world. Where can you find a sleeper? Where can you find a guy that really hasn't kind of popped yet into their development process? And do they fit under the philosophy of how you're trying to build your hockey club? So, I don't think that whether it's a deep draft or not, at the end of the day, there are always going to be players that have gone later that should have gone earlier and it's our job to unearth that and use every method that we can to try to make the right, educated decision that we can for the organization."