Article content

2016-17 Edmonton Oilers in review:

Griffin Reinhart

Blink and you missed it. But for a brief time at least, Oil Country was united in joy. The occasion was the 2015 NHL Draft, Connor McDavid was officially an Edmonton Oiler, and that was all that mattered.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Griffin Reinhart may finally be ready for the NHL, but not necessarily with Edmonton Oilers Back to video

The mass euphoria lasted about an hour. But when it came time for the Oilers to make their second pick of that first round, Gary Bettman stepped up to the microphone and said in his inimitable fashion, “We have a trade to announce…”

The upshot was that the Oilers traded both that #16 pick acquired from Pittsburgh in the David Perron swap, and their own #33 pick to New York Islanders for 21-year-old defenceman Griffin Reinhart. The idea was sound enough: trade assets likely 2-5 years away from contributing for an emerging player a little further along the development path but young enough to join the newly-defined McDavid Cluster. In Reinhart the Oilers saw a former fourth-overall selection that their scouting staff of the day had reportedly seriously considered taking with the #1 pick in that ill-fated 2012 draft, and who had been rumoured heading to Edmonton via trade on at least one occasion in the intervening years. It was the first significant swap under new GM Peter Chiarelli, and one that was upbraided from the start by some critics.