Oilers' five biggest draft busts in franchise history

The Edmonton Oilers have had some major whiffs come draft time since merging into the NHL 44 years ago.

While all teams will make some bad picks, the Oilers have had some serious misses at inopportune times. Plenty of those played parts in them struggling the way they did throughout the 2010s. With that said, let’s look at five of the worst selections the Oilers have ever made on draft day.

Nail Yakupov

This one was a slam dunk. Nail Yakupov was the Oilers’ third straight first-overall pick and one that they would soon come to regret. Despite entering the NHL with a ridiculous amount of hype, the 29-year-old was never able to break the 20-goal or 40-point plateau in his four seasons in Edmonton.

After departing the Oilers, Yakupov would have brief stints with the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche, where his struggles continued. After being the first pick in 2012, he was out of the NHL by 2018 and has since played in the KHL. He logged just 350 games in the NHL, posting disappointing totals of 62 goals and 136 points.

Jason Bonsignore

The Oilers went into the 1994 Draft with a big opportunity to improve their roster, as they possessed the fourth and sixth overall picks. Luckily for them, they found a great one in the sixth spot with the selection of Ryan Smyth, because their choice at fourth in Jason Bonsignore was an outright disaster.

Bonsignore went on to play just 21 games in an Oilers sweater, and only 79 in his entire NHL career. During that span, he scored three goals and had just 16 points in a career that can be defined as a major bust.

Jesse Niinimaki

The Oilers surprised many at the 2002 Draft when they selected Jesse Niinimaki at 15th overall. Many projected the Finnish forward as a third-round pick, but the Oilers staff obviously felt they saw something few others did. As it turned out, they made the wrong call.

Niinimaki never appeared in a single NHL game and scored just a single goal in the 24 AHL games he suited up for. He was one of just four players taken in the first round of the 2002 Draft that didn’t log a single game at the NHL level.

Michael Henrich

Another player the Oilers took early that never managed to suit up for a single NHL game is Michael Henrich. Now 43 years old, Henrich had a solid junior hockey career with the Barrie Colts but was never able to adjust to the professional game. He played just four seasons in the AHL before heading overseas, where he remained until his retirement in 2014.

The silver lining for this pick is that the 1998 Draft wasn’t particularly strong, with the two players drafted immediately after Henrich — Patrick DesRochers and Mathieu Chouinard — playing a combined 11 games in the NHL.

Alexei Mikhnov

The good news about the Oilers’ selection of Alexei Mikhnov compared to the two above is that he was able to play in the NHL. The bad is that he didn’t do a whole lot more, appearing in just two games throughout his career.

It took Mikhnov six years after being drafted to head overseas. Expectations were quite high for the 6-foot-5 winger upon arriving, but he never panned out and returned to Russia the very next season.

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