In regards to Chiarelli and McLellan
One question at the heart of the angst of a segment of Oilers fans, though, is whether or not Chiarelli should still be the one sitting at the general manager’s helm.
As the conversation on 1200 continued Thursday afternoon, Mendes asked McKenzie about his thoughts on the futures of the GM and head coach.
“Well, I can envision a scenario where both of them are back,” indicated McKenzie. “I could envision a scenario where maybe one of them is not and I think that’s more likely the coach not back than the general manager. And I suppose – I’m not sure I can envision a scenario whereby they clean house and they say, ‘The GM is gone, the coach is gone, and we’re starting all over again.’ I find that one hard to believe.
“But when this season ends, I mean Bob Nicholson has got to sit down with Daryl Katz and Wayne Gretzky and everybody else who belongs to the brain trust in Edmonton and sort out, ‘Okay, what are we doing here? What’s the plan.’ I’m sure they’ll want to do a postmortem with Chiarelli. I’m sure they’ll want to do a postmortem with Todd McLellan.
“And Bob Nicholson did give us a little bit of insight when he did a Hockey Night in Canada interview a couple of weeks ago where he talked about, ‘Well, you don’t just replace somebody unless you’ve got someone better to take over.’
“And so then the question becomes what might happen not in Edmonton at the end of this season that might influence those decisions. So what if Joel Quenneville becomes available. What if Barry Trotz becomes available. Does that change their thinking on Todd McLellan. I don’t know the answer to that question. But that’s in line with some of what Nicholson talked about saying you just don’t replace the coach and then go out and start looking. Todd McLellan is a good coach. I find it hard to believe that he should be or could be the fall guy for the season that they’ve had. But as I say, if they think they’ve got someone better, then he could be in trouble.
“Peter Chiarelli has obviously got to explain what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what he’s going to do to fix it and then sell Nicholson and Daryl Katz that it’s going to be different next year and here’s why it’s going to be different and here’s the plan. Then it’s a matter for them to decide, ‘Okay, do we have faith in Peter Chiarelli to do this, and do we have faith in Todd McLellan to do this.’
“And that’s when the decisions get made.”