Quoting: LoganOllivier
Mark Hunter is a deadly GM candidate who I think would turn the Oilers around by putting a major focus on proper drafting and enhanced player development, which the Oilers are terrible at.
While I agree with the Oilers needing to re-haul the entirety of their front office, I don't think Mark Hunter should be the guy that's so sought after. I feel a lot of the hype regarding him is manufactured, and his track record isn't nearly as good as people say it is. The 2014 draft is really the only draft that Hunter was solely responsible for: Dubas was brought in a month after the draft to run stats, and by the following April was predominantly in charge of prospective player procurement and development. Looking back at that draft, I struggle to see why Hunter alone would solve the Oilers' drafting woes:
- Nylander was the consensus #8 pick; taking him at 7 isn't a huge reach, but is still a very shrewd pick.
- While Rinat Valiev did play a dozen games as a 3rd Round selection, names like Brayden Point, Victor Arvidsson, Danton Heinen, Gustav Forsling, Kevin Labanc, and Ondrej Kase were still selected later. It hints at Hunter and his staff sharing similar blind spots with every other scouting department.
- Pierre Engvall might yet pan out as a steal of a depth player in the 7th round, but the high-water mark for Toronto's other picks in that draft is a middling ECHL forward.
While I know Dubas wasn't solely in charge of the 2015 and 2016 drafts, I fail to give all the credit to Mark Hunter individually. I think he gets mislabeled as a scouting visionary (a la Bim Jenning) due to prospects Toronto already had in the system and the caliber of talent that came after the scouting / procurement roles had been split. Keep in mind the Toronto system already had Gauthier, Johnsson, Brown, and Sparks in it. Also, keep in mind that Marner and Matthews were consensus picks at #4 and #1 respectively. Names like Timashov, Bracco, and Nielsen are slowly starting to look like they're going to be flushed out of the Toronto system in favour of fresh blood. That leaves Travis Dermott as the only "real" success under the Hunter regime thus far.
I'm definitely in favour of purging the current regime, and possibly even Katz himself, but I'm not excited with Hunter being the guy they'd think to replace him with. Peter Chiarelli was also a GM far removed from the Oiler sphere of influence, and it didn't pan out. While I understand the Leafs going with Dubas' seemingly-visionary approach to the trade, I have concerns that Hunter chose not to procure NHL work in Los Angeles, Minnesota, or in Carolina, and instead went back to managing London.