DRAFT: Wright sets the stage for a deep 2022 NHL Draft

EDMONTON, AB - A deep draft class described by Oilers Director of Amateur Scouting Tyler Wright will provide some interesting options for the Edmonton Oilers at the 2022 NHL Draft later this week in Montreal.
Wright, his scouting staff and General Manager & President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland have been hard at work doing their final bits of due diligence in advance of Thursday's first round of the draft, where the Oilers are slated to select 29th overall.
"It's actually probably a bit of a lengthier process than the majority of the people would know," Wright said,speaking with 630CHED's Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer on Monday towards the final build-up. "My area scouts], I really like them to interview these guys before our mid-term meetings if they were going to be on their list. Then once we have these mid-term meetings and whether or not they've been invited to the NHL Combine, we decide if we're going to do secondary interviews.
"Once we get to the draft here, in the preparation to the lead-up to the Draft, we'll do second and third interviews for Ken Holland to sit in on, who's probably not part of a lot of the earlier ones for potential guys who we'd use with our first-round pick."
The gaps between players up for selection at this year's draft have shrunk from a variation in their playing time because of the pandemic over the last two-and-a-half seasons, leading to a closer group as a whole for teams to sift through and find a valuable prospect to add to their systems.
"I think the hard part with this draft is that nobody's really separated themselves to really be that good player," Wright said. "So where they are in the development process -- if they've been stalled in certain areas from the lack of playing time or development because of a pause in whatever league they were playing in -- there are a bunch of different variables that come into play."
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A much tighter draft class in terms of position and potential opens up the opportunity for the best player to emerge in the coming years anywhere between the first-overall pick or the back end of the draft, lending encouragement to Wright and his staff that a great player could be awaiting them at 29th overall if the research is done and the right selection is made.
"I think in three-to-five years from now, when all these young men get drafted and they continue to develop with their respective teams, you might get the best player at one, you might get him at three, you might get him at fifteen, you might get him at 25, or you might get him in the sixth round.
"I think that's kind of this draft and I think you're going to get good value in this draft."
Just as difficult as it has been for prospects to accrue playing time in junior leagues around the world, scouting departments in the NHL including the one led by Wright in Edmonton has had to pivot in different ways to get around the challenges and project prospects to the best of their ability.

"I think the pandemic grounded a lot of the scouting for a better part of a year or so," Wright said. "We've had to come up and get a little creative with a couple of different scenarios having a little bit more time on our hands to be able to look at those things."
That process of evaluating prospects involves exhausting every available outlet to them in hopes of informing themselves with the information they need to make the best selection possible.
"I think you're naïve if you don't use any tool and every tool possible," Wright said. "If it can help you make a decision in one way or the other, whether it's a good decision or a stay-away decision, definitely it's a tool that we're trying to use.
"Do we look at analytics? Do we look at video? Do we try to break it down into different areas of the game? Every rock we're trying to turn over to see if it can help us make the best-educated decision we can."
The late-round picks for the Oilers -- 158th, 190th and 222nd overall on Friday - could be earmarked for use on a goaltender with only four goaltenders currently in the system for the '22-23 NHL season (Mike Smith, Stuart Skinner, Olivier Rodrigue and Ryan Fanti).
Wright expressed his desire for the Oilers to strengthen the position through the draft, but affirmed that the Oilers will need to stock the shelves with the next wave of prospects in every position as the current crop that includes the likes of Dylan Holloway, Xavier Bourgault and Carter Savoie edges closer to the professional ranks.
"No, not at all," Wright said of any apprehension on using late picks on a netminder. "You've got to draft and you've got to develop, so we're trying to upgrade in every position possible. I think when you look at the big piece of the pie with what we've done, we've kind of got a plethora of pro guys who've got a couple of years underneath their belt.
"We've got to get that next wave of young men in on the back end, up front and in the goaltending position. I think with Ryan Fanti, that's a college free agent that kind of fits that bill of being 21-to-22 years of age. With the development of Skinner and how Rodrigue is now, we've got a couple of pieces there and we've got to start re-filling the cupboards with goaltenders as well."