Peter Chiarelli Appreciation Thread

[Tom Brady]

The Lucic signing is going hunt this team from left to right. not only were paying him 42 million dollars but on top of that he's getting top 6 min and first PP unit, that's just ludicrous no wonder we have no scoring depth. the Reinhart trade is another major mistake on his part, i think MacTavish had a big hand in it but still. he's done more harm than good.

 

[RandomGuy79]

Was this everyones dream roster?
https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/EDM/2016.html

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

I don't actually have any real issue with the bigger name players that Chia is putting on this team. It's just that the team (and sometimes we as fans) have greatly overrated our depth players like Strome, Cagguila, Slepyslev, Benning etc. We need more scoring depth. I would love to see some 'Bold' moves, by moving some of those guys in deals for some more veteran players who can contribute now

 

[FlameChampion]

Chiarelli is a GM of the old nhl, he built the bruins on truculence, testosterone and pugnacity. The new nhl is puck moving d men, speed and skill. Since he got mcdavid, he surrounded him with big, lumbering forwards like marron, Lucic, kassian and stay at home d men like klefbom, Larson, nurse. Chiarelli failed to adapt to the new nhl and might have ruined mcdavid prime. He should be fired ASAP

I sorta agree. I think players like Maroon, Kassian, Larsson definitely make the team better. I dont mind Lucic (I think he benefits the team off the ice), but that contract will cause a lot of problems.

I think the problem is that they dont have enough skill and fast enough wingers on the team. If they had combined some skill/fast players with Maroon, Kassian etc it would be more effective. This is partially Chiarellis fault but its also still a problem with former management, they dont have any skilled/fast players to plug into their lineups from their farm team. The drafting has gotten better since Chiarelli took over but its too soon to see some of those players make an impact. Poor drafting and poor development is hurting this team. But Chiarelli really hasnt done anything to bring some extra skill into the lineup either via trade. Like you said, hes focused mainly size. (His drafting has focused a bit more on skill though). Players like Cagguila, Slepshev, Khaira, etc just dont make enough impact on the team.

 

[cpsman]

I sorta agree. I think players like Maroon, Kassian, Larsson definitely make the team better. I dont mind Lucic (I think he benefits the team off the ice), but that contract will cause a lot of problems.

I think the problem is that they dont have enough skill and fast enough wingers on the team. If they had combined some skill/fast players with Maroon, Kassian etc it would be more effective. This is partially Chiarellis fault but its also still a problem with former management, they dont have any skilled/fast players to plug into their lineups from their farm team. The drafting has gotten better since Chiarelli took over but its too soon to see some of those players make an impact. Poor drafting and poor development is hurting this team. But Chiarelli really hasnt done anything to bring some extra skill into the lineup either via trade. Like you said, hes focused mainly size. (His drafting has focused a bit more on skill though). Players like Cagguila, Slepshev, Khaira, etc just dont make enough impact on the team.

McDavid and Draisaitl (mostly McDavid) have been able to turn this team around from bottom 5 to potentially top 5 NHL team in the matter of a couple of seasons. Thats really good. You can't expect the GM to fix all of the rest of the problems in 1-2 years. I think he partially had hands tied because of A) the bad reputation Edmonton had (bad management before him, city is most northern / "cold") - few FAs would want to sign here, he would have to pay them $$$ to sign. B) Other teams knew that Edmonton would have to make bold moves and they made sure he paid a premium to get what he wanted. C) Some of the existing players at the time were done in Edmonton. Hall had whatever issues / conflicts (not going to speculate); Eberle never seemed to get his scoring touch / confidence / effort back from his first season; Yakupov was absolutely ruined and mishandled by Eakins, and just didn't fit with the team. Chiarelli had to get them off of the team so had to take what he could get.

Not saying he couldn't have done better. I was/am bitter about some of the moves he's made. Not for making the moves, but just for not waiting enough to get better return.

Regardless, he hasn't been horrible given the circumstances, but could have done better. I like having Maroon and Kassian on the team. They add a different dimension that this team hasn't had before. They needed the size and got it. We are now needing to balance it out with some experienced skilled wingers. That's where moves like adding Jokinen should be paying off but he hasn't been able to pick it up yet. Lucic too... but they are inconsistent. Lucic especially needs to do wayyyy more than he has been able to show in Edmonton, especially given his salary.

 

[Mr Positive]

GMs are judged on success, so Chia deserves criticism. If he could have seen into the future that our record would be this, he would have changed the team, so it shows that he misinterpreted something about the team or the direction the league is going.

But now he is tested again. Sometimes the right move is to do nothing, and let the team work out its own issues and let returning injured players be the upgrades. Being aggressive can be bad, like how Florida made big moves like firing Gallant last season and just about everyone says it was a mistake because their issues were explained by injuries.

But maybe we do need a move or two, and if Chia doesn't make those moves and we are 15 games in with a similar win percentage, then that looks really bad on him too.

No GM can make the right reads all the time, and Chia's generally put the team in the right direction until this season. So Chia made a bad read during the offseason, but he can re-evaluate and make the right read now.

 

[GMofOilers]

GMs are judged on success, so Chia deserves criticism. If he could have seen into the future that our record would be this, he would have changed the team, so it shows that he misinterpreted something about the team or the direction the league is going.

But now he is tested again. Sometimes the right move is to do nothing, and let the team work out its own issues and let returning injured players be the upgrades. Being aggressive can be bad, like how Florida made big moves like firing Gallant last season and just about everyone says it was a mistake because their issues were explained by injuries.

But maybe we do need a move or two, and if Chia doesn't make those moves and we are 15 games in with a similar win percentage, then that looks really bad on him too.

No GM can make the right reads all the time, and Chia's generally put the team in the right direction until this season. So Chia made a bad read during the offseason, but he can re-evaluate and make the right read now.

He should of know Talbot was going to suck the first 5 games.

Why didn’t he know Klefbom was going to be a wreck.

He really should of known Drai was going to get hurt.

What a dumb man

 

[Mr Positive]

He should of know Talbot was going to suck the first 5 games.

Why didn’t he know Klefbom was going to be a wreck.

He really should of known Drai was going to get hurt.

What a dumb man

I get what you are saying, but judgment on GMs is rarely fair. It's based on success.

I also get that there is a luck element, but there are issues that a lot of people anticipated that have seemed to be big problems. For instance, the Sekera injury is huge, and maybe it explains why Klef is bad, if he's got more responsibility now. The team was also bad with Drai on the team, and it seems like the league is going towards fast players, while Chia has put a lot of focus on physical play. Now, that strategy did pay off for us last season, and maybe it will pay off for us this season, but to me it seems like a lot of the things wrong with the team today were anticipated even if the exact specifics were not.

And btw I've generally been giving Chia the benefit of the doubt for a long time, but that's because he gave results. I will also say that I'm not jumping off the Chia bandwagon, and I am saying that I have faith that he will make the right moves and non-moves to get us on track.

 

[GMofOilers]

I get what you are saying, but judgment on GMs is rarely fair. It's based on success.

I also get that there is a luck element, but there are issues that a lot of people anticipated that have seemed to be big problems. For instance, the Sekera injury is huge, and maybe it explains why Klef is bad, if he's got more responsibility now. The team was also bad with Drai on the team, and it seems like the league is going towards fast players, while Chia has put a lot of focus on physical play. Now, that strategy did pay off for us last season, and maybe it will pay off for us this season, but to me it seems like a lot of the things wrong with the team today were anticipated even if the exact specifics were not.

And btw I've generally been giving Chia the benefit of the doubt for a long time, but that's because he gave results. I will also say that I'm not jumping off the Chia bandwagon, and I am saying that I have faith that he will make the right moves and non-moves to get us on track.

I was just adding on to your post.

We do have to remember it is still early but 3 games brings us back to 500. Win more then we lose the rest of the year and we could have another 100 point season

 

[StevenF1919]

He should of know Talbot was going to suck the first 5 games.

Why didn’t he know Klefbom was going to be a wreck.

He really should of known Drai was going to get hurt.

What a dumb man

He should have known that this D-core wasn't good enough to contend for the cup.
He should have known that Russell was not good enough to carry the 2nd pairing.
He should have known that our RW depth was awful.
He should have known that trading away our 3rd best goalscorer would cause issues offensively.
He should have known that we wouldn't be so lucky with injuries again and would need to improve the team to match our point total from last season.
He should have known that we would need a replacement for Sekera until he gets back.

All of these things were easily predictable over the summer. Anyone who thought that the roster going into the season was acceptable was delusional.

 

[TheRebuild]

I just think he should have traded for/signed a better defense man then Auvitu or however you spell his name. He knew well in advance Sekera would miss like half the season, to think that some throw away player... from quite frankly, a pretty shitty team to begin with, would step and in and just fill that role, when there were players like Hamonic on the table. It’s the kind of thing past Oilers management always did. Basically overestimate the skills of the players they have and underestimate the rest of the league.

 

[shoop]

He should have known that this D-core wasn't good enough to contend for the cup.
He should have known that Russell was not good enough to carry the 2nd pairing.
He should have known that our RW depth was awful.
He should have known that trading away our 3rd best goalscorer would cause issues offensively.
He should have known that we wouldn't be so lucky with injuries again and would need to improve the team to match our point total from last season.
He should have known that we would need a replacement for Sekera until he gets back.

All of these things were easily predictable over the summer. Anyone who thought that the roster going into the season was acceptable was delusional.

D core has taken a big step back than expected. Klef/Larsson/Benning have all regressed. Russell is the same old. Nurse has improved. 6/7 is a problem.

RW depth - Chia appeared to have guessed that Puljujarvi would be better. Strome was hopefully an ok 2RW or good 3RW. Instead he has been an ok3RW.

Trading away Eberle was a cap deal.

Crystal ball about injuries isn't something anyone shoulda known.

Far from easily predictable.

 

[StevenF1919]

D core has taken a big step back than expected. Klef/Larsson/Benning have all regressed. Russell is the same old. Nurse has improved. 6/7 is a problem.

RW depth - Chia appeared to have guessed that Puljujarvi would be better. Strome was hopefully an ok 2RW or good 3RW. Instead he has been an ok3RW.

Trading away Eberle was a cap deal.

Crystal ball about injuries isn't something anyone shoulda known.

Far from easily predictable.

Yeah, the D core has taken a step back because our 2nd best dman is injured. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we'd need someone to step in until he gets back. Russell is the same old crap player which means we only have two top 4 guys (although Nurse is starting to look like he belongs on the 2nd pairing). Chia even admitted that our D wasn't good enough after the Anaheim series and yet he brought the same guys back.

He guessed wrong, and relying on a 19 year old to carry the load of a 25 goal/60 point player is ridiculous. Strome was bad on the Islanders and it's not shocking that he's bad here too.

It was a cap deal and yet he did nothing with the cap space.

We had 0 key injuries last year, was it really a stretch to think that we wouldn't be so lucky this season? There was no way we were going to have the same injury luck.

All of these things were easily predictable and people here voiced their concerns over the offseason only to be shouted down by people telling them to wait until the season started. The season has started now and we're 2-5, and people are still defending Chia's disastrous summer.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The reality is Chia had a pretty lightweight offseason. Did next to nothing and only the easiest of additions. This was basically a run with lineup offseason. The trouble is the Oilers had several overachievers last season. They had Talbot playing more games than anybody in the league. They had Klef, Russel playing over their heads. They had guys like Maroon, Kass being the best they've ever been.

Last season we had a team that had some success. The year AFTER success is always the key year and it always gets harder. Teams prepare more for you. It is absolutely essential to upgrade the team when you have that opportunity and have a team on the upswing that would be attractive to free agents. Chia slept through it. He didn't improve the team this offseason. That is on him.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The interesting thing is Chia knew this was not really a 103pt team last season. He said as much. He said they had exceeded expectation. Did he think they were just going to continue to exceed year after year? That hardly ever happens.

A club is defined in the year AFTER success. Defined by how they perform WHEN NHL correction has occurred and teams have a book on them and are ready and geared to play them. NHL is not like the NFL where playbooks are very current and schemes run successfully every week and altered. NHL tends to take next season to counter what teams are doing.
The book is now out on how to beat the Oilers. Or how to limit them and make life difficult.

Its this season that the Oilers needed more help. It would be the easiest offseason to obtain it.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

All of these things were easily predictable and people here voiced their concerns over the offseason only to be shouted down by people telling them to wait until the season started. The season has started now and we're 2-5, and people are still defending Chia's disastrous summer.

link?

 

[Soundwave]

The interesting thing is Chia knew this was not really a 103pt team last season. He said as much. He said they had exceeded expectation. Did he think they were just going to continue to exceed year after year? That hardly ever happens.

A club is defined in the year AFTER success. Defined by how they perform WHEN NHL correction has occurred and teams have a book on them and are ready and geared to play them. NHL is not like the NFL where playbooks are very current and schemes run successfully every week and altered. NHL tends to take next season to counter what teams are doing.
The book is now out on how to beat the Oilers. Or how to limit them and make life difficult.

Its this season that the Oilers needed more help. It would be the easiest offseason to obtain it.

They need to upgrade Lucic and RNH ... that isn't that easy.

He bet the farm on Lucic/RNH/Eberle by making the Hall trade.

 

[Drivesaitl]

They need to upgrade Lucic and RNH ... that isn't that easy.

He bet the farm on Lucic/RNH/Eberle by making the Hall trade.

Well of course its Chia's fault that Lucic is here and Hall is gone and that he over appraised Nuge and Eberle. He bet wrong on all accounts.

Relatedly, although I like Larsson, he bet wrong that a pairing with Klefbom was going to be good enough to be a top pair. I thought that was being exceedingly optimistic about Klefbom. They managed it for a year but now teams have targeted the weak link. Now what do we do?

We jettisoned Hall, Eberle, Gagner, Yak, replaced them with very little offense, and now we have a pretty average D and we have a lack of production depth.

 

[GameChanger]

RW depth - Chia appeared to have guessed that Puljujarvi would be better. Strome was hopefully an ok 2RW or good 3RW. Instead he has been an ok3RW.

Well they didn't really give Pulju a very fair chance IMO. In his last preseason game he outplayed guys like Strome and Caggiula and he was just starting to gain confidence, with good reports about his work on the PP. I don't get how they thought it was a good idea to send him to AHL so easily, keeping so many players with much less potential in the roster. It must be a huge blow to the kid, and as we have seen the Oilers PP hasn't been working too well. At the same time Slepy had just one game (no points) in the AHL before being brought up.

I understand that it's sometimes good to send a player to the AHL, but in this case it seems the bar isn't set at the same level as with the others. I've seen so many times that with this kind of talents the best results come when you give them a bit of time and freedom, instead of keeping them scared of losing the spot in the roster all the time. Would they really have done much worse if he'd been in the roster.

As for Chia, for quite a few years the Oilers haven't really gained much from e.g. the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the draft. Because of that Chia should probably use those for trades. Maybe even with Pulju to get a dman or a winger.

 

[shoop]

Well they didn't really give Pulju a very fair chance IMO. In his last preseason game he outplayed guys like Strome and Caggiula and he was just starting to gain confidence, with good reports about his work on the PP. I don't get how they thought it was a good idea to send him to AHL so easily, keeping so many players with much less potential in the roster. It must be a huge blow to the kid, and as we have seen the Oilers PP hasn't been working too well. At the same time Slepy had just one game (no points) in the AHL before being brought up.

I agree with you. I really think Pulju should be on the Oilers. Not sure why he isn't given how poorly Strome has played.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Well of course its Chia's fault that Lucic is here and Hall is gone and that he over appraised Nuge and Eberle. He bet wrong on all accounts.

Relatedly, although I like Larsson, he bet wrong that a pairing with Klefbom was going to be good enough to be a top pair. I thought that was being exceedingly optimistic about Klefbom. They managed it for a year but now teams have targeted the weak link. Now what do we do?

We jettisoned Hall, Eberle, Gagner, Yak, replaced them with very little offense, and now we have a pretty average D and we have a lack of production depth.

those 4 have a combined 4 goals between them with Yak leading the way with 3 goals himself...these guys aren't the answer of our offensive whoa's

 

[StevenF1919]

link?

Read through the earlier posts in this thread.

 

[StevenF1919]

They need to upgrade Lucic and RNH ... that isn't that easy.

He bet the farm on Lucic/RNH/Eberle by making the Hall trade.

RNH has been very good this year. They need to upgrade Lucic and Russell, but both have them have massive unmovable contracts so good luck with that.

 

[GameChanger]

I agree with you. I really think Pulju should be on the Oilers. Not sure why he isn't given how poorly Strome has played.

The problem is that now it's probably harder to send him back. I saw an interview that made it clear Pulju was extremely disappointed about him being sent down. Not blaming anyone, but just very disappointed, though he seemed to be getting over the biggest blow. I haven't read many reports, but I was hoping a stronger start in the AHL at least points wise. I think the Oilers have done so much to mess with his head and maybe it's now showing.

It's probably not easy to adjust your game the whole summer for the NHL, hear they're planning to keep you in the team and even got JJ to help him, have a couple of good enough preseason games to show he's got potential and he can do better than some veterans already now, but then being sent down just like that. I believe right now he's going through the process of clearing his head and adjusting to another league, long coach trips etc. It may be a bit similar to what Dubois had last year. Talking about Dubois, last year he had a tough year and has now had 8 games in Columbus with 1+0 (-2) and is still in the roster. Different teams have different strategies and different amounts of patience for player development.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

They need to upgrade Lucic and RNH ... that isn't that easy.

He bet the farm on Lucic/RNH/Eberle by making the Hall trade.

I think that the ability to draft Puljujarvi also factored into this. Puljujarvi if he hits his potential is a lie driving type. His inability to step in and be an impact player so far has really hurt the big club IMO.