Looking back at the Connor McDavid era, no move by the Edmonton Oilers has aged worse than the 2015 trade for Griffin Reinhart. At the time, Edmonton believed it was acquiring a future top-four defenseman and they gave up two picks to get him, passing on what would turn out to be several key stars in that year’s NHL draft.
Reinhart — a former fourth-overall pick and WHL standout — was a familiar face from his days as captain of the Edmonton Oil Kings. Unfortunately, he proved to be a disappointment in the NHL, never finding his footing with the Oilers or any other NHL team.
It was bad enough that the Oilers gave up two high-end picks for a player no one else considered a key part of that season’s draft. But the players Edmonton could have drafted, yet instead chose Reinhart, make the move a franchise-altering mistake.
Who the Oilers passed on in the 2015 draft
The Oilers traded both their first- and second-round picks in 2015 to the New York Islanders to make the deal happen. Reinhart played only 29 NHL games for Edmonton before being exposed — and claimed — by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 expansion draft. Meanwhile, several players who would later become NHL stars were still sitting further down the draft board.