Oilers likely to deal for another top-10 pick
This is Year 33 of the NHL draft for the Edmonton Oilers and only once have they had two picks in the top 10. That was in 1994, and it turned out to be a good news/bad news scenario.
They swung and missed big-time on Jason Bonsignore with the fourth-overall selection, but recovered after some draft-floor debate to take Ryan Smyth at No. 6. Bonsignore loved everything about NHL life except playing the games and only dressed for 21 in Edmonton before he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning along with Bryan Marchment for Roman Hamrlik; Smyth played 770 games for the Oilers before he was dealt to the New York Islanders in 2007. We mention this because the Oilers are trying mightily to do it again. They’ve got the first-overall choice — would general manager Steve Tambellini have Red Deer Rebels centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins over to his house for dinner if they weren’t taking him No. 1? — and they are trying hard to move from No. 19 (the pick bequeathed from the Los Angeles Kings in the Dustin Penner trade) into the top 10, presumably to take a defenceman, likely offering a roster player and the 19th selection. It’s no secret they really like Swede Adam Larsson, Doug Hamilton, the Canadian Hockey League’s scholastic player of the year, and a six-foot-four, 197-pound all-around defender, and local product Duncan Siemens, who plays in Saskatoon and has the requisite sandpaper they need on their back end to complement Theo Peckham. Larsson is the most ready to play, a three-year starter in the Swedish Elite League.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/edmonton-oilers/Draft+holds+multitude+possibilities/4960686/story.html