I feel it necessary to start with suggesting that, when they did play together, McDavid and Hall was not a great combination. In fact, I remember being disappointed by their apparent inability to live up to the potential most felt existed when they were on the ice together.
There’s a lot to be unhappy about when considering Chiarelli’s record in Edmonton. What bothers me the most though is the trade of a mid-first and early-second round draft pick for Griffin Rienhart. I see that move as a catalyst for many of the other questionable moves Chiarelli made.
It’s not certain they would have drafted Barzal, in fact I think it’s unlikely they would have. With the benefit of hindsight, one would hope that given the team’s needs at the time, Edmonton would have drafted Thomas Chabot with the 16th pick, and Sebastian Aho at 33.
I believe Edmonton would have wound up with a draft lottery pick in 2016 regardless of Chiarelli and his trades and free-agent signings, and so I think it highly probable that Puljujarvi was destined to be an Oiler even if I’d rather they picked Tkachuk. However, I am less certain that Yamamoto would have been an Oiler if the 2015 draft had not involved the Griffin Reinhart debacle.
Edmonton certainly had potential to ice a roster with some incredibly talented young forwards, the top three forward lines could have been a combination similar to this:
Aho, McDavid, Yakupov
Hall, Draisaitl, Eberle
Khaira, RNH, Puljujarvi
We know for certain that Edmonton invested $39,000,000 into just five of those players, so how much more would they have to pay to keep Aho, Yakupov, Khaira, and JP?
That defence is scary. Petry was in Montreal before Chiarelli arrived on the scene in Edmonton. Too bad, because aside from a 100% healthy Sekera, Petry is probably the only player on that list that might have actually improved the current group. That’s not a slight against Klefbom, Nurse, or Russell. Its just that without Larsson, none of those three is going to be able to play as effectively on the right side of the first pair. None of them are true number one d-men, but they can all be effective top-4 guys. Schultz would never have been that in Edmonton, the necessary supporting cast just doesn’t exist there.
I will also point-out that Chiarelli let Laurent Brossoit walk last summer, and we see him now excelling in Winnipeg. Difficult to imagine he’d have that success in Edmonton (just as with Schultz), but we should not forget that he too once held promise for the Oilers.
In many ways it’s unfair to point out the decisions Chiarelli did not make, but I do think it’s fair to suggest many of the decisions he did make were simply not very good. Trading Hall was not necessarily a bad choice, taking the deal he took was. Trading Eberle was not necessarily a bad choice, but in concert with trading Hall, and then taking Ryan Strome in return for Eberle, it certainly turned out to be a bad choice (made worse by then trading Ryan Stome for Spooner). Trading a first and a second round pick in a deep draft for a defensive prospect that had been effectively written-off was a bad choice, and it stands out to me as the start of the Chiarelli era. Sekera, I’m okay with, Lucic couldn’t have happened without moving Hall, Russell without Eberle.
Caggiula was a free agent and I hoped Chiarelli might trade him before his first contract expired. Of course he re-signed him and well, as much as I was never enamoured with his game, it’s difficult to reconcile trading Caggiula for Brandon Manning.
In the end, the Oilers would have had to part with one of Hall, RNH, or Eberle if they were going to sign McDavid and Draisaitl. If they had drafted Aho, then perhaps losing Hall might not have been so painful, or maybe moving Eberle wouldn’t be questioned so much. If they’d drafted Chabot, perhaps they would have been a bit more patient and strategic in building their defence, and the team wouldn’t be hamstrung with an over abundance of over-paid bottom-pair and depth d-men.
Who can say for sure that the team would be better off? I don’t think anybody can. I do think it is certain though that the team would be different. Maybe different enough that it would have better options than it has today.
Reply
CapFriendly
CapFriendly