Out of reach: Colorado, Phoenix, Los Angeles, NY Islanders, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Toronto (recently departed in bold)8. Ottawa – 78 PTS, 4GR (MAX: 86)
9. Dallas – 80 PTS, 3GR (MAX: 86)
10. Edmonton – 83 PTS, 3GR (MAX: 89)
11. Minnesota – 83PTS, 3GR (MAX: 89)
12. Buffalo – 85 PTS, 4GR (MAX: 93)
13. St. Louis – 86 PTS, 3GR (MAX: 92)
14. Nashville – 86 PTS, 3GR (MAX: 92)
15. Anaheim – 88 PTS, 2GR (MAX: 92)
16. Florida – 89 PTS, 3GR (MAX: 95)
17. NY Rangers – 89 PTS, 3GR (MAX: 95)
Realistically, Anaheim, Florida and the Rangers are all out of reach as well; there would need to be a combination of the Oilers doing incredibly well and those fringe playoff teams doing incredibly poorly down the stretch for the Oilers draft pick to fall that low. Ottawa, St. Louis and Nashville are also probably out of reach, for good and bad.
As it stands now, the real question is whether Edmonton and Minnesota are going to switch places or not, and the likely range for the Oilers pick in June will be between 9th and 12th overall. In the entire history of the Edmonton Oilers, they’ve only had one draft pick in that range – the guy pictured above.