Good draft is essential to revive Edmonton

Kevin Lowe has a plan for reviving the Edmonton Oilers: draft good players, develop them in the minor leagues and spend less money on free agents. The Oilers have the first pick in next month's draft, earned by having the worst record in the NHL this season. "We've got to get back to what we did for a lot of years," said Lowe, the president of hockey operations. "We've got to get back to our basic principles of drafting and development, get out of the free agent business."

The Oilers made a surprising run to the Stanley Cup finals in 2006 as the eighth seed in the Western Conference, but have missed the play-offs each year since. Edmonton bottomed out by going 27-47-8 this season. "It's a best-case scenario in a difficult time, and that's the way the system of sports is designed, right? When you have that kind of year, at the end of the day you get rewarded with the best player," said Lowe, who won five Stanley Cups as an Oilers player from 1984/90.

Going through the worst of seasons made Lowe and the Oilers realise how much they needed to change. A string of injuries forced the issue after what Lowe called "a couple of troubling years". "It just seems to be in recent NHL history that the only way you become a contender is you have to go to the back of the bus for a while and regroup," Lowe said. "We had a pile of injuries this year to key players and in some respects ? having been at this for 10 years now ? it's a blessing in disguise."

* AP