NHL Draft Lottery 2012: Edmonton Oilers Win Draft Lottery for 3rd Straight Year

The Edmonton Oilers won the 2012 NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday night and will select first overall in the 2012 NHL Draft. 

The Oilers will now pick first overall for the third straight season, the second time in NHL history that this has happened. The last team to have three consecutive No. 1 picks was the Quebec Nordiques, who selected Mats Sundin (1989), Owen Nolan (1990) and Eric Lindros (1991).

After taking two forwards in the last two drafts at No. 1, it's time for the team to select a defenseman with their first round pick.

Here is the order for the top five picks in the 2012 NHL Draft:

• 5) Toronto Maple Leafs
• 4) New York Islanders
• 3) Montreal Canadiens
• 2) Columbus Blue Jackets
• 1) Edmonton Oilers

Here is the list of the last 11 top picks. There have been many successful first overall selections since the start of the 21st century.

Year	Team	Player	Notes
2001	Atlanta Thrashers	Ilya Kovalchuk	One of the best goal scorers since 2000
2002	Columbus Blue Jackets	Rick Nash	Elite power forward who scores goals
2003	Pittsburgh Penguins	Marc-Andre Fleury	Stanley Cup winning goaltender
2004	Washington Capitals	Alexander Ovechkin	One of the NHL's best offensive stars
2005	Pittsburgh Penguins	Sidney Crosby	One of the best players ever
2006	St. Louis Blues	Erik Johnson	With Avalanche now, slowly developing
2007	Chicago Blackhawks	Patrick Kane	Scored winning goal of 2010 Cup Final
2008	Tampa Bay Lightning	Steven Stamkos	Led NHL with 60 goals this season
2009	New York Islanders	John Tavares	Will be a superstar next year
2010	Edmonton Oilers	Taylor Hall	Injury prone, but great when on the ice
2011	Edmonton Oilers	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	Top contender for 2012 Calder Trophy

This year's draft class isn't as deep as in season's past, but there are a number of elite prospects at the top of the rankings, which are led by the Sarnia Sting's Nail Yakupov.

The last player from the Sarnia Sting to be selected No. 1 overall was Steven Stamkos, who has become a legitimate superstar with the Lightning.

Here are my top 10 North American skaters in the 2012 NHL draft class:

Rank	Player	Team (League)	Position
1	Nail Yakupov	Sarnia (OHL)	RW
2	Ryan Murray	Everett (WHL)	D
3	Mikhail Grigorenko	Quebec (QMJHL)	C
4	Alex Galchenyuk	Sarnia (OHL)	C
5	Morgan Reilly	Moose Jaw (WHL)	D
6	Codi Ceci	Ottawa (OHL)	D
7	Radek Faksa	Kitchener (OHL)	C
8	Olli Maatta	London (OHL)	D
9	Jacob Trouba	USA-18 (USHL)	D
10	Griffin Reinhart	Edmonton (WHL)	D

As you can tell, the top of the draft is very strong with defenseman, however, the top two prospects in many people's eyes are the two Russian forwards: Yakupov and Grigorenko. Both are potential superstars who have tremendous offensive talent.

The Oilers won't return to the playoffs unless they either acquire or draft a top-tier defenseman. Ryan Murray is going to be a good NHL player, but he is not the franchise building blueliner that Adam Larsson was last year.

The Oilers cannot afford to take another forward high in the draft when their depth on defense is so weak. Edmonton must trade this top pick for a proven NHL defenseman that they can build around for years.

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Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and was the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Boston.