For Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli, the dual jobs of building a Stanley Cup contender and replenishing a sunken farm system have taken a bad turn. The NHL team’s chances of making the playoffs are in real trouble and the prospects are mostly in the “too soon to know” category. The kind of overhaul required for the gigantic job in Edmonton needed five years and, suddenly, Chiarelli is running on something resembling borrowed time. What happened?
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I think it’s reasonable to suggest Chiarelli arrived in Edmonton in spring 2015 to what could be described as the biggest opportunity of his hockey life—even more welcoming than his first run as general manager with the Boston Bruins in May 2006. At that time, the Boston roster boasted young centre Patrice Bergeron and he would be joined in due time by 2004 draftee David Krejci. Veteran goalie Tim Thomas was already in place and the club would add Zdeno Chara over the summer to give the team strength up the middle. Added to that impressive foundation came a watershed 2006 draft—Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand—giving Chiarelli a lush prospect pool and many options.
The Edmonton situation was arguably even more impressive. The roster at the end of 2014-15 included young talents Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins plus the emerging Leon Draisaitl. The lottery win in 2015 meant Connor McDavid would be added and the ‘decade of darkness’ would soon become a distant memory. The one nagging issue? Strong in quality up front, but real issues in goal and on defence. The Oilers were wildly out of balance, something that had plagued the team for most of the century.
There was plenty of work to do, but free agents were fairly jumping in the boat compared to previous summers in Edmonton. On July 1, 2015, the club signed Andrej Sekera, who was among the top available free-agent defencemen that summer, along with a bonafide utility forward in Mark Letestu. A team with a long tradition of signing players in their 30’s to contracts that were both too much and too long finally landed some genuinely attractive free-agent talent. People notice that, and even if the arrival of Connor McDavid the week before July 1 was the main reason, credit where it’s due in landing these men.
That first summer also included several substantial trades (I wrote about Chiarelli’s trades here) and two deals attempted to address the immediate frontline need while sending away futures. In acquiring goalie Cam Talbot and Griffin Reinhart, Chiarelli was making his first two major bets of his Edmonton tenure. The 2015 entry draft featured an enormous amount of talent, so in dealing five picks (two early selections for Reinhart, three more picks later for Talbot) the organization was taking a chance in losing the long-term bet. No matter, as long as Talbot and Reinhart delivered on the bet, and the Oilers won while progressing toward the Stanley Cup, the risk would be low for management. Few remember errors made when the path leads to Stanley.
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In a way, McDavid’s 2015-16 injury allowed management to skate (sorry) on the Reinhart deal, a trade that cost the organization two high picks for a defenceman who wasn’t NHL ready. Fans could be upset at the trade, but only to the point where Mathew Barzal (the earlier draft pick) was playing lights out in junior. That gave Chiarelli a second chance to find ready help and there was a moment when it looked like Jason Demers (a summer 2016 free agent) would be the answer.
Alas, the plan was to go in another direction. Two free agents were courted that summer, Demers and Milan Lucic. The Oilers coveted Lucic’s skill set, and the thought of landing him for just money must have had tremendous appeal for management. Edmonton’s forays into free agency often involved getting right up to the door only to be denied, so the Lucic option was going to weigh heavily on any decision.
On June 29, 2016 , the Oilers dealt Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. For all intents and purposes, Larsson became Demers and effectively replaced Jeff Petry (Edmonton didn’t have anyone who could play that role even though Petry had been dealt 16 months previously). That cleared the way for the signing of Lucic, and at that point (in my opinion) the general manager had superimposed his vision of the Oilers on top of the previous template.
It worked in 2016-17, and the 103-point season and playoff victory obscured the Hall trade (although the number of Hall fans in this city remains large to this day) and the Reinhart transaction from the previous summer. This year? No such luck. Ask an Oilers fan about Jordan Eberle and the same fan who may have railed against a soft pass and goal against versus the Anaheim Ducks is now mad about Eberle’s strong start in Brooklyn and the lack of offence back at home. The heat is on.
The Oilers as an organization would have known about the reasons behind Chiarelli’s release from the Bruins, it was available in news stories surrounding the firing. Lack of cap room and trades that sent out youthful impact talent like Tyler Seguin were part of Chiarelli’s resume and he’s repeated much of his Boston habits while in Edmonton.
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It’s my belief that if Edmonton was in third place in the Pacific Division today, the bleeding of talent in the Hall and Reinhart trades would be a distant bell. However, the team is wallowing near the Pacific Division basement and the roster holes are obvious. The lesson here: Just win, baby. Chiarelli noted in November that he was disappointed in the Oilers performance, but didn’t do much to uplift the team after that rare public appearance. Oilers fans don’t care who is disappointed, they care about the team winning and pushing for the playoffs. The brilliant McDavid line is often followed next shift by Leon Draisaitl and two wingers trying to establish themselves as NHL players.
Based on results this year, one assumes there will be more cover next fall for unproven talents across the roster. The transaction record shows that the general manager stopped doing business until the McDavid and Draisaitl contracts were concluded summer 2017, preferring to get that done before moving on to other areas. By the time those deals were complete, the long list of fixes included a few items that were never addressed (RH defenceman for the second pairing who could help the power play; Stop-gap replacement for Andrej Sekera; A certain solution for one of the scoring right-wing spots). That caused some real roster issues for coach Todd McLellan, who solved the right wing issue by placing Leon Draisaitl back on right wing with McDavid opening night. Edmonton’s July 1 activity was highlighted by the signing of Ty Rattie, who has yet to make an appearance with the parent club.
Every general manager loses some deals, but it’s also true Chiarelli’s records include some large talent losses. He often regains lost talent in those deals with lesser trades (like Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian), and ends up with a roster that suits his style. If his team is winning, the criticisms are voiced but more muted. If his teams are losing, it’s the first bullet point on the page.
From the outside, it looks like we’re heading for some changes this summer, possibly before then if the losing overwhelms the season. The Oilers haven’t had anything approaching balance for years, perhaps this crazy 41-game opening stanza to 2017-18 will change the Oilers’ leisurely approach to each season’s early days.
It all comes down to owner Daryl Katz. Like most Oilers fans, I’m sure his expectation was a build toward Stanley in the coming years, with each spring (even the one coming) offering the possibility of a championship. Katz and Bob Nicholson can’t be happy with the current situation and the increasing role of Wayne Gretzky as the face of the organization is an interesting development. We wait.
(Top photo: Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)
