Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
Chiarelli has been everything we could have hoped for. I tho k he made 4 very coritical errors that lead to the situation they are in. There are more than 4 errors but these are the worst imo in order:
1. Trades the 16th pick (who could have been Barzal, Connor, Chabot, Boeser, Kinect) and the 33rd pick (who could have been Aho, Carlo, Andersson, Dunn) for Griffin Reinhart. This move right here was truly his worst. They might not of picked those players but imagine if they had Chabot and Aho? In addition to McDavid that draft would set them up for a decade.
2. The second worst move was Hall for Larsson. 1 for 1 simply a shocking trade at the time. Hall is a superstar and Larsson is simply a bland second pair D.
3. The third biggest mistake was the Lucic contract. The deal was ugly from the get go bit people thought he would probably be good for 3 years of that deal but the Oil got one year that was acceptable the second was a disappointment and it only is getting worse. The bonus structure and C make the deal unmovable.
4. The last critical error was drafting Jesse Puljujarvi with the 4th pick in 2016. Tough to blame him for taking the clear cut top choice at the time but this bust has set the Oilers back as they desperately could use a top 6 winger.
Eberle for Strome for Spooner was bad.
4x4 for Russell with a NMC was brutal. Sekera 5.5x6 would have proven to be a terrible deal but the injuries cloud that take a little bit.
Paying McDavid and Draisaitl top $ to buy maximum ufa years was smart imo but it left little room for error and this team is full of bad contracts. Bad drafting has highlighted this further. Just to think of what Chiarelli inherited and what he did with it was just awesome from a flames fans perspective.
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I don't think Chiarelli makes all the decisions, I think he has been mostly a puppet for whatever the "big boys club" want. I know that Mactavis was a big Lucic fan so it was no surprise when they when out and picked him up. The oilers came into this thinking they had a master plan to build a team of superstars by losing and picking up draft picks every year. So what did they do in the meantime?; "they started a losing culture". They rewarded players for losing and drinking koolaid, "while paying them millions to keep drinking it".
They have cycled through several coaches, soiled and placed blame on spoiled (but skilled players while trading them away to appease fans). Poor management and drafting strategy "while assuming the chips would fall into place" has proven to be very shortsighted and incompetent.
The oilers don't really have a plan. it fizzled. The only thing they can do is start over, reestablish a new culture and identity. They could also trade McDavid, but that would mean admitting everything they did was wrong, shoddy and poorly constructed. I think it will be an entrenched philosophy + pride that will prevent them from making any meaningful change.
Even if they let Chiarelli go, the next person will still have to swim with the old boys club.