Monthly Archives: November 2017

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

“If That’s a Mistake Then That’s Mine” Says Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli on Oilers Now!

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After yesterday’s media availability Peter Chiarelli went on Oilers Now! with Bob Stauffer and had another 15 minute or so interview just with Stauffer. I have to say that I think the interview with Stauffer was a bit better than the one with the Edmonton media. I think that Chiarelli danced around a lot of the questions and had a lot of prepared answers ready to fire off whereas this one below I found that Chiarelli was a bit more honest and self-critical. Not that what he said wasn’t true in the press conference, mind you, I just thought that there was lots of opportunity for the reporters in attendance to ask some harder questions and for Chiarelli to be a bit more specific and neither was done.

So what I’m doing for you today is basically transcribing the Chiarelli/Stauffer interview for you as best I can and at the end, I’ll have the audio version available as well.

The interview starts out with some fluff about the Dropkick Murphy’s so I’ve left that out. I imagine that’s okay with you.

Begin~

Stauffer: Just back from Boston, the team’s 5-0 now against Boston in one of the team’s better performances from your squad this season. I had a couple of guys from around the league say,

“Well, that’s a message. The players want to show the GM that they want to be a part of the solution so they’re gonna play great against his former team.”

Is it just the match up? What do you think is part of the reason why you have that kind of success against the Bruins here over the last three seasons?

Chiarelli: I’m not sure. I know there’s a few ties to the Bruins that are on the Oilers now. I don’t know if that trickles down to the rest of the group. Of course, you’ve got Lucic too. I don’t know. We get up to play them. The one game if I can remember, the one Cam stood on his head in my first year but other than that we’ve been pretty much, we’ve handled them pretty good, so, it’s nice to see. It was nice to see that game on the end of a road trip that was a tough road trip from a performance perspective. I’m sure we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of all that stuff but it’s good to see us win that game. The last game of a road trip too is always, you always worry a little bit because the guys are thinking about getting home. So it was a good end.

Stauffer: Is it difficult to assess when you have a performance like you did in St.Louis and followed it up the next night taking a game over against Detroit, then you go against a team like Buffalo who is really struggling, they were desperate, and there wasn’t a lot there energy-wise and then you own the first 50 minutes of the game against Boston, they finally got a little bit of a push late.

The consistent inconsistency, from a broadcast perspective, it’s kind of flummoxed me a bit and I’m wondering how maddening it is for the GM of a team and the people that are involved with hockey operations in assessing this group?

Chiarelli: It is difficult. You tend to break down a game, a segment of games and try to identify issues, problems, deficiencies. And when it’s up and down like that when there’s such big swings, it’s hard. Sometimes it’s hard to explain them into the line items that you normally go into when you’re investigating or trying to figure out what’s going on.

What I said at the press scrum today Bob, you were there, I think it goes back to that we’re having difficulty managing these expectations and I think it’s crept into our group and so when you see a real strong game, which we saw two on this road trip followed by a crummy game where it was flat. There wasn’t a lot of push, there wasn’t a lot of compete. Part of what makes me think, “Do they get this relief? Do they get this, consciously or sub-consciously, a sense of comfort after having such a good game?” And then that just follows it into the next game where you either underestimate the opponent or you’ve let your mind wander a bit. So, this is a smaller part of managing expectations and it’s not a cliche, these are things that are predominant in every organization and we’ve had difficulty doing it. We’ve obviously got other issues but to me, when you see these dips and peaks and stuff, it’s a large part to do with that.

Stauffer: I know last year I was one of the guys that thought the team would take a big step forward and maybe exceeded some expectations. I believe that the organization would be capable of having a 5 or 6 year run like Vancouver did where they would be 45 wins and about 100pts. I thought, “OK, there’s a good base here, a lot to work with, a good starting goalie, you’ve got some young developing dmen, obviously you’ve got Connor and Leon to mention a couple up front…”

So maybe I was guilty of maybe not recognizing how difficult this is to do on a year-by-year basis. But I do want to start, there’s an adage in hockey,

IT STARTS IN GOAL

and you made a purposeful effort in the press conference not to blame your goalie but the fact of the matter is, he hasn’t been as good as he was last year.

Chiarelli: No, he hasn’t. And neither of them have. You’re right. I don’t know what to tell you on that. They haven’t. You can’t win in this league with a .900 save percentage. You can’t. So Cam has to be better and you can break down a number of difficult things that are around him.

I described it as a death by 1000 cuts. There’s a lot of stuff going on and that’s one of them and you can’t win in this league with a .900. Now, interesting, I was looking at the stats today and there are a couple teams that are in around a .905/.910 that are winning but you can’t sustain it.

So we have to better. Cam has to be better. Again, not putting all of the blame on his shoulders, we could all shoulder this blame but that’s one of the things.

Stauffer: Well, the stat here for you, .909 SV% or better and the Oilers are 8-2-1 when Talbot’s had starts of .909 or better and that’s not asking for a lot. He’s got a career .920 SV%. .908 or worse, the Oilers are 1-9. So that to me illustrates part of the challenge.

You knew Andrej Sekera was going to be a big loss, to me, guys like him. He’s a good guy and he plays a lot of minutes and you were counting on a couple things to happen here. I don’t know if you thought Darnell Nurse would be this good. Has he exceeded your expectations to date?

Chiarelli: Yeah. If you can recall what I said going into last year we wanted to give the young D a chance to, essentially it was the lower half of our D that was Darnell and Matt Benning. Then going into this year with Reggie out it was, “Let’s see what they can do.” And Matt’s struggled early but he’s got his game back and Darnell’s done well. But the other elements of the D haven’t. They’ve done well and the others haven’t, so, Klef’s been struggling and he’s not the same player for a couple of reasons we won’t go into…

He’s dinged up

We’re not bridging the gap. The intent was to bridge the gap and we’re not. That falls on me to a certain degree and we have to fix it.

Stauffer: Dale Tallon says 300 games for a dman before you know what you got. Oscar’s dinged up but he’s at 211, Nurse is at 139.

Chiarelli: How many did Matheson have?

Stauffer: Micheal Matheson?

Chiarelli: Yeah

Stauffer: Why? Did he trade him?

Chiarelli: Dale signed him for 6 years. I mean there’s a rule of thumb but generally speaking…

Stauffer: Well, it’s interesting because you’ve got Benning and Nurse that are RFAs and they’re, in my mind, they’re a big part of the Oilers future here. I mean you’re looking at a 22-year-old and a 23-year-old dmen, so I guess you’ll have to clear that hurdle when it comes, right? I don’t know if we’re looking at bridge or long-term deals.

Because Larsson to me has rounded into form.

Chiarelli: Yeah, he’s played well. So we’re a defence-by-committee and when you lose a guy like Sekera, everyone gets pushed into larger different minutes and we were counting on the young guys picking that up, and they have,  for the most part they have but the other guys have struggled. The defence-by-committee right now, it’s not great. So that impacts the goaltending too.

I don’t think I allowed you to finish your question. If the question was going to be, “Where’s the verdict on Klef?” Is that what it was?

Stauffer: I would say you gotta be patient with the guy.

Chiarelli: Yeah yeah yeah. Klef’s a good defenseman and he’s having a bad year for a number of reasons.

Stauffer: In terms of an assessment for Slepyshev and Caggiula and Puljujarvi, who were being counted on to provide some secondary offence, I don’t think you could assess Slepyshev because he hasn’t been healthy enough.

Chiarelli: Well, neither has been Drake. He missed 4 weeks but his game has been in and out a little bit too.

Jesse, maybe we were counting on him to start the year. If that’s a mistake then that’s mine. But he’s a good player and he’s coming and of the 8 games he’s played, 6 have been very good. It’s a lot cleaner game, significantly cleaner game.

I just been on the road watching teams and you take a player like Dubois, who was a pick ahead of Jesse, and there’s a lot of talk on that stuff but aside from that he struggled to stick around at the start of the year and you could see it. This isn’t to say the coaches should play him more, that’s not what this is about, my comment. It’s about- Some guys develop at different levels and Jesse’s coming. I’m happy with what I see. But he’s got two goals and Slep has what, one goal? Drake has 3 or 4.

Your comment is an accurate one.

Stauffer: A lot of the fans clamoring for more. In terms of more ice-time for Jesse. How hard is it for the GM, is that a delicate balance between the GM in terms of the relationship with the coach? Because you’d want to see certain guys going and obviously I know the degree of trust factor that is there between the two of you.

Is there a way you could educate our listeners on how you unique that relationship is?

Chiarelli: This is an ongoing dialogue on a number of different things and he understands, he has to understand, and he does understand kinda what the plan is. And I’m just talking in general, I’m not talking about Jesse. But there are little curves along the way and we just continue to have a dialogue. I want him to be comfortable with who he plays and we talk about it and we figure it out. We’re on the same page and Todd’s developed young players before in Detroit and San Jose and I’ve been part of young players that have been developed. This is part of it.

Stauffer: You were asked a question today about culture and sometimes in the context of a room like, chemistry instead of culture, like Pouliot had a terrible year last year, decent first couple years, he was a well-liked guy. When the move was made a majority of fans were 100% on board with the move being made at that time.

Eberle… Likeable guy. Strome’s been good the last few games and I think he’s starting to become accustomed and it takes a few guys- even Hendricks was a- maybe him the most from a culture perspective was a unique personality.

Do you have to factor that in when you’re team building?

Chiarelli: Sure. Yeah you do. It’s hard to find those guys that bring that that can actually play and contribute. I’m not directing that at Matt. I’m directing that just in general. You do have to factor that it. You also have to factor in paying current players and your cap this year and your cap next year. There’s a lot of things you have to factor in.

What I said today on that point was, for me, it was- I’m not in that room so take this for what it’s worth, for me it was more attitude than chemisty and at what point does attitude turn into chemistry? I don’t know. Then I went back to the guys have to recognize and manage these expectations and come to work everyday.

But yeah, that room, they have guys that are veterans in there. And again, to be a good guy and to be a leader, one doesn’t follow the other. To not have the good guys that were here, because Jordan’s a good guy too and Ryan’s a good kid.

I’ve been criticized this year for not doing enough and then I’ve been criticized for doing too much. I’m okay with being criticized, when you’re in this seat you get criticized. We’re just trying to find- to me, this is about a group that may have a little different composition that’s trying to find its way and find their roles and spots individually and collectively and we’re not there yet.

Stauffer: And it’s obviously frustrating from a consistency basis. How quickly, if you don’t mind sharing this with us, did the Cammalleri deal happen for Jokinen? Was it a quick move?

Chiarelli: Yeah, it was a fairly quick move. I felt that Jussi wasn’t a good fit here and I’d spoken to a couple of teams on him then that one came and we did it.

Stauffer: Cammalleri’s been up playing on the first line.

Chiarelli: Yeah, he’s been good. He’s a shooter and he makes plays and I’ve been happy with Mike.

Stauffer: In the right deal would you be prepared to move a future asset? A higher pick because we’ve moved around a lot of 2nd round picks, right?

Chiarelli: Would I be prepared to move a 2nd round pick or a 1st one?

Stauffer: A 1st round pick, the asset has to be one that’s long-term, right? I assume.

Chiarelli: I guess I won’t answer that question but I’m prepared to do anything to make the team better, Stauff. I wouldn’t rule out anything.

Stauffer: In the first 7 years I did color, the Oilers had 7 coaches and 3 managers. In these situations, has it been in your experience is maybe what you need to do the most is to sort-of knuckle down and believe in what you got and not hope for you need to be better but believe that it will inevitably will get better?

Chiarelli: Well it will get better but it’s just painful getting to that point and is there enough time for it to re-adjust. Like, Cam’s a good goalie. He will get better and the numbers will normalize and Klef’s a good player. At some point he’s going to play better but the question is as a manager is, our goal at the very least was to get into the playoffs this year so at some point you’re going to run out of time and you’re going to wait.

You do knuckle down and you I do see light at the end of the tunnel but I also recognize there has to be some fortification at some point and so we’re on the lookout for things that’ll bolster our line-up.

Fin.

What do you think of Chiarelli’s comments here? Let us know in the comments section that is under the sweet BLH tees that are available at the BLH Teepublic shop!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jesse Puljujarvi Being Targeted According to Shannon

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Yesterday on the Monday edition of Oilers Now! Bob Stauffer and his guest John Shannon from Sportsnet had a good conversation on the Oilers and of course the latest trade rumors.

Below you’ll read about the rumor that Jimmy Murphy put out over the weekend but Bob won’t say his name and I wonder why that is?… It bugs me a bit to be honest. I find it a bit disingenuous and kind of rude. I mean if you’re going to go as far as to mention where you heard it days after Twitter has dissected it, you might as well give credit to the source of the rumor…

Anyways, to the quote…

Stauffer: Let me ask you this, part of the reason we get you on John is to talk about league stuff, How much are you hearing, I saw a rumour out of Boston from a fellow who suggests that the Oilers and Boston were talking Nugent-Hopkins and he said it was basically in embryonic stages, early stages. I think he said Danton Heinen and Peter Cehlarik and I was like, “yeah, I don’t see that happening.” I don’t know how Boston can do that. Boston has $62M committed moving forward for their team as well but I don’t see that happening with Nugent-Hopkins. I think that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is here to stay this year.

But are you hearing anything at all about the position the Oilers are in right now? Because I don’t see Edmonton being sellers. I still think that the Oilers think that they can chase down a playoff spot. They do have some unrestricted free agents that maybe get moved at some stage for some pieces but I’d like to get your thoughts…

Mark Letestu, Pat Maroon, Mike Cammalleri are those UFAs that Bob is talking about. All of them would definitely provide useful services to a playoff team (including the Oilers) and my question is, what kind of “pieces” would the Oilers want? Draft picks? Prospects? Cap Space?

Lowetide did up a pretty good summary of what he thought the Oilers could get in return for their assets over at The Athletic. I’m not sure if you’re signed up for that publication or not but if you are, HERE is the link and if you aren’t, click THIS LINK and sign up because a) you get 25% off (I think that will cost you like $5 a month or something cheap like that in total) and b) I get a hearty handshake from The Athletic in the form of a $10 Amazon credit. I imagine some of you will be apprehensive because of the amount of stats-leaning writers but there’s much MUCH more to it. Justin Bourne’s breakdowns are f*cking amazing! Portzline’s Q&A posts are really cool! Craig Custance has a podcast on it, and I also like Pierre LeBrun’s insider info!

I recommend you read Lowetide’s article completely for full effect but if you want the Cole’s notes version, here you go (in my words):

Rentals – draft picks 4th round plus or young winger with NHL potential
Standard Turris/Duchene-like trade – higher end prospect (former 1st rounder) or a true NHL player with some zip to his stride.
Salary dump – very little. maybe a player of the same position. most likely the Oilers would have to pay to move these players.

Shannon:Well, I’ll tell you what, IF the Oilers were sellers or IF the Oilers felt like they needed an upgrade and they needed to sacrifice someone, to me, there are only two people in the whole organization that anybody would want anything of, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is one of them and the potential of Jesse Puljujarvi is the other. 

So those are the only two people I can guarantee you that Peter Chiarelli has been taking phone calls on. Bob you know GMs in this league, they’re trying to fleece you anyway.

Of course those would be the players. The GMs are preying on Chiarelli’s reputation for dealing away young talent but the difference is, the Oilers don’t have to trade RNH or Pulju. Hall needed to go to shake the foundation of the team and Eberle had to go because he made too much money for the production he was putting out. RNH is contributing a lot this season (basically replacing Eberle’s offense at centre) and Pulju has already shown us that he’s a much better fit on the Oilers than he is on the Bakersfield Condors.

When the pro scouts are around the Edmonton Oilers, the two guys that are at the top of the list are Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jesse Puljujarvi.

Obviously the Oilers will want something big if either of those two are to move. I’m talking about a Tyson Barrie or a Justin Faulk but I’ve been told that neither of those dmen are available anymore.

Shannon: I’m not suggesting the Oilers are shopping him (Puljujarvi) at all, I’m not.

But he is saying that Peter Chiarelli is taking calls on him… So PC is feeling out the market on the Finn by not including him in the same untouchable group as Darnell Nurse or Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl.

If I’m Chiarelli and I’m not 100% convinced about Puljujarvi, I still hold onto him until I know what’s going to happen with Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson because I know for a fact, those teams will want an arm and a leg for those players and at Puljujarvi’s age and potential, he’ll still be a wanted commodity. Also, he’ll be on a cheap contract.

I guess if one were really putting everything together, RNH, Puljujarvi, and a 1st rounder would surely land you one of those three soon-to-be-UFA superstar dmen above, no? At least put you at the top of the list of teams to negotiate with.

Blake Wheeler vs. Jesse Puljujarvi

I’m not sure I buy the comparison much. Wheeler had the advantage of coming into the NHL at the age of 22 and immediately being a 40pt player.

Now, what I would look at is what changed when the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg because he went from a 40pt player to a 60pt player. If you know what the catalyst was that sparked Wheeler’s production, please enlighten me in the comments below!

IF it takes Pulju 6 years to develop into a Wheeler-type player, I think it would be in the best interests of the Edmonton Oilers to keep him under contract cheap until that potential is realized because it’s not like Puljujarvi is useless without the puck, he isn’t. He’s actually quite useful and his defensive game is far more developed than most players his age. I’d milk all he’s worth until he started displaying that offensive potential. I’ve even heard from pundits that perhaps Puljujarvi’s future lies at center… Wouldn’t that be something?

What do you think about Shannon’s comments? Let us know in the comments below!

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

We’ve Seen This Oilers Movie Before, Let’s Change the Ending

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The Oilers put in a tough performance vs. the Buffalo Sabres last night and the result did them no good in the standings. They’ve joined some familiar friends in the NHL’s basement as the Sabres and Coyotes are also competing for the best overall odds at drafting defensive wizard Rasmus Dahlin, Russian sniper Andrei Svechnikov, or Czech playmaker Filip Zadina.

But 23 games a season does not make.

Last month the LA Kings had the 3rd best record in the NHL. In November, the Kings have the 3rd WORST record of the NHL teams. Nashville and Winnipeg were 18th and 19th in October and in November they are 1st and 2nd so far.

The Edmonton Oilers were 30th in the NHL in October, in November their record was allowed them to jump to 18th.

Unfortunately though, the Oilers are still in 29th place overall and are going to need some massive help from a downright poor Pacific division. If the Oilers can pull this off in any division in the NHL, it’s the Pacific. None of the teams can decide if they want to stay in the top 3 apart from the expansion Golden Knights and do you really think they’re going to be in the playoff hunt come trade deadline?

I’m not going to lie to you though, the Oilers are in a very precarious position where the playoffs are looking doubtful but NOT impossible. Baby steps.

IF the Oilers can win the final two games, they’ll have gone .500 (7-7-0-1) on the month and after going 3-6-0-1 in October, I’d see this is a major improvement and so should you regardless of what side of the Chiarelli coin you find yourself on.

Speaking of Chiarelli… Kind of…

In the past, Oilers nation has gone into unfiltered tantrums when their team has performed poorly and at season’s end it’s culminated in the firing of the coach. We blamed management and ownership for the revolving door of GMs and coaches that ruined the development of many of the team’s prized prospects. Yet, here we are again… Blaming the coach for one thing and the GM for another…

It’s time that we stopped this revolving door behind the bench and upstairs. It’s time to give them the proper amount of leash and it’s time for the players to get themselves out of this. We know they can.

And this whole narrative of the team being too slow was NOWHERE to be found in the season previews. Bob McKenzie never said anything about it. Dreger, Friedman, Button… Nobody said anything and all of a sudden over the course of two months EVERYTHING has changed for all of them.

Doesn’t that seem a bit fishy?

They tell us to look at the Pittsburgh Penguins model but the Pittsburgh Penguins have had a worse month that the Edmonton Oilers. So why should we be looking there?

But that being said, I talked about Carl Hagelin being a target a couple of days ago and today Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was connected to another team… The Boston Bruins…

Apparently…

He says he’d love to see Bergeron, Krejci, and RNH down the middle eh? Well I’d love to see McDavid, Draisaitl, and RNH down the middle in Edmonton…

Apparently, ol’ Jimmy here hasn’t seen that the Bruins have 80k in cap space… That’s EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS… Plus, the Oilers aren’t going to take back any of the Bruins albatross contracts. They’ve got enough of their own to deal with…

*Update* THE THREE-HEADED DRAGON IS BACK BABY!!!

I’m a little disappointed to see Pulju out and Pakarinen in but this is the life of a prospect who hasn’t established himself yet and I’m glad to see Slepyshev return to the lineup. My question will be though, can Slepy bring more than Puljujarvi did? 

So what I’m getting at is, this organization needs to dance with the girl they brought and stay committed. Dealing RNH isn’t going to turn this team around all of a sudden. Firing the coach definitely isn’t. And Firing the GM right is the last thing that is going to turn the fortunes of this team around.

They need to get over this team sickness, buckle down, and put the pedal to the metal because there are literally a shit ton of Oilers fans out there doubling-down on the Oilers missing the playoffs. The boys need to show THOSE fans they are WRONG!

GO Oilers GO!

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Oilers Looking at Another Swede?

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I’m sure you’ve heard or read these quotes from former GM and TSN hockey analyst Craig Button regarding the Edmonton Oilers’ recent woes but if you haven’t, enjoy…

“They need a lot more horse power. Speed, speed and more speed. In a 100 km league, they’re going 95 km/h and it’s not good enough.”

“When you are slow, you are always going to be chasing the puck and they are slow. I know Peter Chiarelli has talked about we need to play fast — playing fast is the new buzz phrase in hockey. Well… they can only play at a certain speed and, quite frankly, that speed is not up to the competition.”

“Until they address their speed problems, they are going to be chasing the puck all night long, giving up grade ‘A’ scoring chances. Outside of Connor McDavid, there is no other player on the Edmonton Oilers who threatens with speed.”

I don’t necessarily agree with Button on this one because last year when the team was playing into the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, speed wasn’t a concern. Not only that but last I checked, Jordan Eberle, Benoit Pouliot, and Matt Hendricks weren’t winning races.

So I went ahead and asked one of my sources what the deal was with this supposed team speed problem and was there a player the Oilers were looking at to address it? I was offered these thoughts,

“Well, the Oilers are looking at a guy like Carl Hagelin, He’s had a rough start (this year) in Pittsburgh but he’s quick, moves well, and thinks the game fast, supports the puck fast, has the wheels, and a quick release.”

“The team is constantly chasing the puck because they are slow and Hagelin is the kind of player who would help there.”

“With adding a speedy player, I think that hockey IQ is just as important as everything else when it comes to grading a player on ability. Hagelin isn’t a star in my opinion but if the Oilers could get him for a young winger, it’d help the Oilers be faster AND quicker.”

Very interesting, no? I love his speed and if that is truly the reason for looking at him, I don’t have any qualms about the Oilers picking him up. He doesn’t score a lot  (either did Maroon before coming to Edmonton) but he might be part of a very select group of players that can keep up with McDavid. He makes $4M per year this year and next before going UFA in 2019.

Only 3pts this year but the Penguins are not having a great start scoring-wise either. Here are his career stats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3XlENrl7vc

I asked if Pat Maroon would be the kind of guy that could go the other way because of all the players that are probably the most tradeable but wouldn’t hurt the Oilers as much, it’d be Maroon… Having Maroon, Lucic, and Khaira all on that left side is a tad redundant I feel.

“Maroon is definitely a possible trade chip. Word is, he’s looking for $3.5-$4.5 for 4 years and the Oilers aren’t wise to that.”

Now from what I’ve gathered, the Penguins are looking for scoring too but I’m not confident that Maroon would be that guy. That being said, Maroon has shown a propensity to score with generational players and the Pens might want to rid themselves of Hagelin’s contract…

How do you feel about Carl Hagelin? Do you think that he’s the kind of player that would help the Oilers?

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Just What the Oilers Needed + Trade Rumors and Comments on the Coaching/GM Hotseat

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I’ll get the rumor and commentary on the coaches/GM out of the way before my rant to save you some time.

The Trade Rumor

Alex Petrovic is being looked at by the Oilers. According to Bob McKenzie, he’s getting little to zero TOI in Florida right now and short of demanding a trade, is looking for a way out. He probably wouldn’t cost much as the team apparently doesn’t view him as even a bottom 6 defender and would be a better option than Eric Gryba in my humble and professional opinion.

The Coach/GM Rumor

I posted a blog yesterday about a note that was passed to me by one of my sources. I wanted to get it out ASAP because it was right after the game and let you fine people get a gander before everyone went to sleep but I didn’t have much time to comment on it. So I can now.

When my source contacted me and told me the Oilers were looking at possibly changing coaches, I thought it was a terrible idea. The Oilers GM being on the hot seat, well that comes with the territory of a team that is struggling but I really do think the record of the Oilers is on the players right now. The team is WAY better than it is performing. I know that, you know that, the pundits (most of them) know that, the coaches know that, and the players know that.

https://twitter.com/TheOilKnight/status/933416922263121920

You see, the thing that has changed since Bob Nicholson, Peter Chiarelli, and Todd McLellan came into the picture is that of player accountability and I like that after seeing the OBC coddle and protect Hall and Co. for all of those years.

The Oilers would be making a huge mistake by firing McLellan and/or Chiarelli and it would look terrible on the ownership. 20 games a season doesn’t make and if one or both were fired, the team would be back to square one as there would be a 3-year transition phase again for the new coach or GM. Yet the people who claim to be smart about hockey and write about it are foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs as they fire blame at the GM.

As my friend Sean said in the tweet above, fans want blood or results and when they don’t get either of them… See the gif below.

THE RANT

First off, this is much easier to write when the Oilers have just won a game. So I admit to cherry picking the timing a bit here.

Ya know, I’ve been battling my fellow Oilers fans online this week over the job that Peter Chiarelli has done this past season (as well as seasons before that) and they really only have a few arguments OR in other words, they can’t let go of the past and love re-hashing it…

  • He’s traded out skill for size
  • He’s screwed over the salary cap (It’s apparently going up to $80M btw…)
  • He downgraded the roster

Yes, he did trade out skill for size but how else were the Oilers going to compete in the Pacific? He did hand out some big contracts but he certainly didn’t put the Oilers in a place where they can’t recover. I do not believe he downgraded the roster. If you’re talking about Eberle, there’s more on that below.

Now, we know two things about Peter Chiarelli from his time in Boston,

  1. He isn’t afraid to trade a popular (aka young) player
  2. He builds teams that consistently make the playoffs.

These are undeniable facts, no?

In Chiarelli’s 9 years with Boston, his teams made the playoffs every season but the first and the last. Not only that but in those 7 playoff seasons the Bruins finished 1st in their division 4 times and made the Stanley Cup finals twice, winning once.

Do you know who Chiarelli didn’t trade in that time? Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Tuuka Rask, Milan Lucic, or Brad Marchand. Sure Wheeler, Seguin, and Kessel went but not his core.

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As GM of the Oilers, he has built a roster that went from having plenty of small highly skilled forwards and annually missing the playoffs to making the playoffs with a bigger, more physical set of players. But let’s be honest here, Kassian, Lucic, Larsson, and Maroon were a huge factor in the Oilers making the playoffs and nearly advancing to the Western Conference Final. Everybody loved them for it because that’s what it took to succeed in the Pacific Division. I still believe that to be true today and if the Oilers had a schedule laden with Pacific Division teams to start the year, we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.

So you can’t just all of a sudden look at the Oilers record right now and say Peter Chiarelli is a bad GM. He’s not. His record proves that despite the players he’s traded away and the contracts he’s given out that he is indeed a good GM. His firing from Boston is even debatable.

Was Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson a fair trade? No. Hall is obviously a better offensive player but Larsson is obviously a better defensive player! Defense, something the Oilers weren’t getting from Justin Schultz, Brandon Davidson, Adam Clendening, Mark Fayne, Jordan Oesterle, Adam Pardy, Griffin Reinhart, Andrew Ference, or Brad Hunt.

Let’s say the Oilers go into the 2016 season with the defense they had plus Hall plus… Demers. I imagine it’d look like this:

Sekera-Demers
Klefbom-Fayne
Nurse-Davidson

Am I missing someone?

I am not convinced that the Oilers would’ve made the playoffs with that defense and I hope you aren’t either.

Click the image to purchase this tribute to Milan Lucic!

The trade wasn’t simply about the on-ice product. I mean Lucic has kept pace with Hall’s goal totals though. I’m of the belief that the trade was made to shake up the team in part because there wasn’t any accountability being held by the Old Boys Club. A group of men who were accused of coddling the kids a bit too much in the decade of darkness and are being blamed still to this day for the Oilers current record.

Moving on to the Eberle trade. When a top 6 RW is traded for a 3C, it doesn’t look fair does it? But with the possibility of an offer-sheet on Leon Draisaitl looming and after a complete no-show by Eberle in the playoffs, there was pressure on Chiarelli not only from the fan base but from other GMs.

There are few more moving parts with the Oilers picking up Strome though, right? And don’t tell me that he was traded to replace Eberle because he wasn’t. I had this out on Twitter and there are some who believe that makes this trade even worse. Meaning that Chiarelli made the trade knowing that he wouldn’t have someone to replace Eberle’s 20 goals last year… Untrue. He did.

Eberle has 7 goals today and Drake Caggiula and Ryan Strome combined have 7. Bingo Bango! Bob’s your uncle. I’d check Nuge’s goal totals as well. Lastly, are Anton Slepyshev, Zack Kassian, Mike Cammalleri, Jujhar Khaira, Iiro Pakarinen, and Jesse Puljujarvi going to only score 2-3 goals this year?

The same thing happened when Hall was traded. Fans and pundits alike cried about who was going to score Hallsy’s goals. Who stepped up to replace those goals? Everyone! The whole team chipped in and added to the offense and the same thing will happen this year.

You see, in the game of hockey, one man cannot do it on his own. Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, nor McDavid could or can. It takes a team to win and it takes a team to score. Therefore, Chiarelli made this trade so that he could have an offensive-minded 3C thus giving him that ability to move RNH up into the 2-hole behind McDavid and to use Draisaitl as a RW thus stacking the top 6.

That’s a nice list eh? At this very minute, Ryan Strome is a mere 4pts behind Jordan Eberle all while making nearly 30% of Eberle’s salary… Criticize that trade all you want but these are the numbers…

They complained Chiarelli didn’t acquire someone to put in Andrej Sekera’s spot until he returned from knee surgery.

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Also untrue. Enter Darnell Nurse.

He’s the best possession defenceman in the NHL right now according to Corsica…

Amongst dmen with 300 min TOI and at 5×5 Darnell Nurse is No.1 in:

  • Corsi For %
  • Corsi Against per 60
  • Expected Goals For %
  • Relative Expected Goals for %
  • Fenwick For %
  • Fenwick Against per 60
  • Shots For %
  • Shots Against per 60

As for the other categories that aren’t more offense leaning, Nurse is in the top 5 or top 10 at worst.

So don’t complain to me that Chiarelli didn’t find a suitable replacement for Sekera. He did what a good GM does, he put faith in the players he has. Said faith is now being used against him as the Oilers sit in 28th place with 18pts.

Last night the Oilers had a good 40 which, this season so far, is usually the other way around. A good 20 is what we’ve been getting more often than not. But after getting their asses handed to them by St.Louis in what is being called their “rock-bottom” moment, the boys came back hard to beat the Red Wings in a sparsely populated Little Caesar’s Arena. What’s up with that by the way?

Did the players win that game as they lost 8-3 against the Blues or was this win a product of Peter Chiarelli’s doing? I mean if the Oilers losses are all on Chiarelli, then the wins should be too, no? #PickALane

Next up are the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes. Do not underestimate them! I would like the Oilers to take those 4pts of course but the boys have come up on these teams in the past thinking that they’d be an easy win and lost… Badly. But if the Oiler do end up winning both games and the Ducks and Sharks don’t pick up any themselves, they’ll still be in 2nd last place in the Pacific but they’d have made up significant ground which is a lot better than what we’ve been dealing in.

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