Eakins was sought after as an assistant by a few teams, not really his fault that the Oilers upped the ante to land him by making him head coach, and then setting him up to fail by undermining his authority.
As fans we know about 4% of what goes on behind the scenes especially at the exec level. The contacts these guys have established with player agents, other GM's, other execs etc allow the teams that hire them to have those resources and contacts for trades, draftimg, scouting, recruitment, which take years and years to develop at the level.
Chia, like Eakins and many other Oiler execs was made scape goat for the undermining that is enagaged in above his level with the Oilers. And that same level throws him under the bus and fans lap it up and blame him for everything, while the true architect of the demise has just enough time to lander and cuddle to the press to get put in the HOF 25 years after retirement.
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