Many Oilers fans have regained hope in a team that has had a tough couple of years thanks to their first place position in the 2015 NHL draft.
On Saturday Edmonton was given the opportunity of first pick in the NHL draft lottery.
“I just about came off my chair,” fan Craig Baker told CTV News.
Other fans agreed.
“For all the bad years we’ve had as Oilers fans it’s pretty nice to have something to cheer about again,” Tim Osborne said.
“Obviously it is a great thing for the organization going forward it is just a matter of who and when and the excitement of it all,” former Oiler Ryan Smyth said.
This is the fourth lottery win in six years for the Oilers, who selected Taylor Hall in 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011 and Nail Yakupov in 2012.
Hall and Nugent-Hopkins are stars, but Connor McDavid is considered a once-in-a-generation talent like Sidney Crosby and Oilers great Wayne Gretzky and to many fans it is a no-brainer who the team will pick.
“There is no one player that is going to come to this team and take them to the promised land but it is a big piece of the puzzle I believe,” Chris Hayward said.
Hayward said Edmonton’s first-place draft pick was a shot-in-the-arm for the team.
“I don’t think it is going to take them very much to make it to the next level.”
Smyth said it could change the organization going forward.
“Any type of player can help a franchise especially the caliber of many of them in this draft.”
With files from Amanda Anderson, The Canadian Press
