The Edmonton Oilers are one of the strongest teams in the NHL entering the 2023-24 season and are a favorite to win the Stanley Cup. Every team in the NHL tries to build their roster based on who they draft rather than trading for the pieces they need to succeed, and that’s exactly what the Oilers did. Heading into the 2014-15 season, the Oilers had a strong prospect pool with a few players they had belief in that could take them to the promised land after a few struggling seasons as a team.
Related: Oilers: What Happened To Former 1st Overall Pick Nail Yakupov?
The Oilers selected their new number-one prospect third overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft when they selected forward Leon Draisaitl out of the Western Hockey League (WHL) after a really strong season with the Prince Albert Raiders. Everyone knows what a star Draisaitl has turned into today, and most Oilers fans know what happened with former first-overall pick Nail Yakupov, but there were a few other players that the team had high hopes for, so here’s where they all are now.
Oscar Klefbom – Left Defenseman (2011 1st Round – 19th Overall)
Oscar Klefbom was selected in the first round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft at 19th overall after a solid season with Färjestad BK in the Elitserien league in Sweden, where he stood out as a strong two-way defenseman. While he only scored one goal and added one assist for two points through 23 games, he was a big-bodied player who had the potential to grow into a top-pairing shutdown defenseman.
The 2013-14 season was Klefbom’s first taste of NHL action, where he played 17 games scoring one goal and adding two assists for three points. He spent the majority of the season with the Oilers’ minor league team, the Oklahoma City Barons in the American Hockey League (AHL) where he scored one goal and added nine assists for 10 points through 48 games.
Klefbom broke out the following season and became a huge part of the Oilers’ blue line until the 2019-20 season. Unfortunately, his career is likely over early following a shoulder injury, which is unfortunate because he was quickly becoming one of the team’s strongest players. If he never plays again, he will finish his career with 34 goals and 122 assists for 156 points through 378 games with the Oilers and will go down as one of the biggest “what if” players in Oilers history.
Mitch Moroz – Left Wing (2012 2nd Round – 32nd Overall)
Mitch Moroz was drafted in the second round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft at 32nd overall by the Oilers after a solid season with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WHL. In his draft year, he scored 16 goals and added nine assists for 25 points through 66 games. What stood out about Moroz was the physical and gritty side of his game. He had 131 penalty minutes in his draft year, and the Oilers seemed to like the idea of bringing in a guy that nobody would mess around with and would make the team scarier to play against.
Unfortunately, Moroz’s game never transferred to the NHL level. He played parts of three seasons in the AHL, scoring 14 goals and adding 14 assists for 28 points through 147 games split between the Bakersfield Condors and Tucson Roadrunners. He spent three seasons in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads, where he scored 10 goals and added 25 assists for 35 points through 80 games. Moroz hasn’t played since the 2019-20 season, and his career is likely complete.
Mark Arcobello – RW/C (Free Agent Signing in 2011)
The Oilers signed forward Mark Arcobello to a two-year entry-level deal in April of 2011, after he split time between the AHL and ECHL in the Oilers’ system. He was a smaller player, who had some speed and knew how to put the puck in the net. Standing at only 5-foot-8, 174 pounds, Arcobello was glanced over at the drafts he was eligible to be selected at and instead had a much tougher path to get to the NHL level.
He played parts of four seasons in the NHL with the Oilers, Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes. In that time, he scored 24 goals and added 29 assists for 53 points through 139 games. In the 2016-17 season, Arcobello opted to sign in the Swiss National League (NL) with SC Bern. Heading into the 2023-24 season, he remains in the NL, having spent the previous three seasons as the captain of HC Lugano. Over eight seasons in the NL, he has scored 125 goals and added 204 assists for 329 points through 345 games.
Darnell Nurse – Defenseman (2013 1st Round – 7th Overall)
Darnell Nurse was drafted in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft by the Oilers at seventh overall after an extremely strong campaign with the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he gained a reputation as a potential top-two, two-way defenseman. Over parts of four seasons with the Greyhounds, Nurse scored 36 goals and added 98 assists for 134 points through 221 games and along with his offensive side, he had an entertaining physical side that immediately transferred to the NHL level.
Nurse made an impact right away with the Oilers. His first full season was the 2015-16 season, when he played 69 games scoring three goals and adding seven assists for 10 points. Since then, he has become a top-pairing defenseman with the Oilers. Over 10 seasons with the team, he has scored 66 goals and added 169 assists for 235 points. He is the team’s assistant captain and has been a huge part of the team’s success in recent years.
All of these players, including Draisaitl and Yakupov, were considered top prospects for the Oilers entering the 2014-15 season. Nurse and Draisaitl have become huge parts of the team, and Klefbom would have been, while Arcobello, Moroz, and Yakupov are no longer playing with the Oilers. Nobody can ever perfectly predict what a prospect will turn out to be, so it’s fun to look back and see what could have been. Luckily for the Oilers, they had two prospects from this time period turn into two of their cornerstone pieces today.
