Mike Toal
Toal was Edmonton's 5th choice, 105th overall. The Red Deer, Alberta native played the previous season as an overaged junior with the Portland Winterhawks, where he easily had his best junior season (121 points in 71 games).
Toal was drafted in large part because of his age. He wasn't an overly sought-after prospect but with the Oilers building almost from scratch, they needed to draft overaged players in order to fill out a minor league roster more than anything.
Toal immediately played with their farm team in Houston of the CHL. He had a surprisingly good offensive season, scoring 31 goals and 75 points in 76 games. As a reward, Toal got called up for a 3 game stint but never registered a point and only had one shot on goal.
Toal was sent to the AHL's Rochester Americans to start off the 1980-81 season but struggled terribly before being sent back to the CHL this time as a member of the Wichita Wind. Toal would play two seasons with the Wind but continued to struggle to fin his form he had in Houston.
Toal retired after the 1982 season. He was drafted to fill a minor league roster spot for a couple of years, and basically that's what he did. For a brief time it looked like the 6''0" 175lb center might have been a diamond in the rough, but unfortunately it just never worked out for Mike or the Oilers.
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