A few months ago I started the "Stay Bad for Ekblad" campaign. Ryan Smyth may have brought it down. In a few minutes, the 2014 NHL Draft Lottery (ie, Oiler fan Christmas) will commence, and the Oilers have a 14.2% chance of winning the top spot. Otherwise, we stay at third, since we won our last game of the season to commemorate Smyth's departure, or fall to fourth, if a team even worse than us wins.
Fortunately, as the Oilers have risen from pathetic to slightly less pathetic, Ekblad has kept the pace:
April's draft rankings from International Scouting Services shuffled the top rankings of the Top 30, seeing Sam Reinhart of the Kootenay Ice overtake Aaron Ekblad of the OHL's Barrie Colts for the No. 1 spot.
Also, Michael Dal Colle of the Oshawa Generals has gone above and beyond with his recent play to surpass Sam Bennett of the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs for the No. 3 position.
Update, 7:03pm: Well, I called it: Ryan Smyth's emotional retirement cost the Oilers the first overall pick. Florida moved up into the first overall spot, and without that last win of the season the Oilers would have had it. Of course, we can play the flip side of the Leafs or Devils: looking at all the winnable games that they screwed up and lost costing them points...we can look at the games the Oilers snuck out a win in which they absolutely didn't deserve it. Games like the Scrivens shutout record, or the home game against Carolina where they meandered their way to a 4-2 victory.
