On this week’s 31 Thoughts podcast, Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman were talking about the Edmonton Oilers situation and Friedman brought up Peter Chiarelli and why he basically went into hiding and only had a few people around him at the end of his tenure in Edmonton. He said that someone who he thought wasn’t that close to the former Oilers/Bruins GM reached out to him to speak on behalf of Chiarelli and this is what was told to the insider,
FYI: You can listen to the podcast at the bottom end of this post!
“I think he felt that some things he hoped would remain private went public, so he lost trust and that’s why he wasn’t talking to anybody.”
It’s kind of funny. Not once since Chiarelli’s firing did anybody wonder why he became so distant and the end. The majority of the conversation around him was about the quality of the transactions he’d completed.
Friedman said that he would send Chiarelli texts asking him about something he was working on and there would never be a reply, the source of the quote above also commented on that,
“He would get those texts and would be like, “I can’t keep a secret.” And that’s why he wasn’t talking to anybody.”
We heard the Oilers radio colorman, Bob Stauffer, say that in the final months of Chiarelli’s tenure that he was only working with Duane Sutter and Ken Hitchcock. Now, did he feel that those men were to be trusted and everyone else he had in his management staff weren’t to be? Men like current interim GM Keith Gretzky, Craig MacTavish, Scott Howson, Paul Messier, and Chris Cichocki.
Were those gentlemen that source of the leaks coming out of Edmonton? Stauffer seemed to have some pretty good intel on some of the happenings going on in the past… Maybe Peter’s brother Michael was the one.
And if Chiarelli thought that he needed to spend the remaining months of his Oilers career in a bunker, why didn’t he just let go the ones who he thought were breaking his trust? Maybe because it would’ve needed to go through Nicholson and Katz? Do you think Bobby Nicks would’ve greenlit the dismissal of those long-tenured senior management employees? I don’t think so… So I imagine he did what he felt he had to do…
That said, loose lips sink ships…
For what it’s worth, there are few GMs in the league that run a super tight-lipped ship. Stuff gets out. Ron Hextall (Friedman also mentioned that Hextall going solo in PHI was also due to a trust issue) and Ron Francis were known to be a couple and also Lou Lamoriello as well. If Chiarelli though that he was going to go into a market like Edmonton his word was going to stay behind office doors, that’s on him and he could’ve used that in his favor had he been clever enough.
Perhaps he should’ve used the reaction to the some of the rumored deals that got out to gauge the value of said deal?… Just an idea to throw out there. I mean, you never want to do your job according to how the fanbase of your team feels but there can be value found by listening to others too.
As if things weren’t going to slip out with all those ex-GMs in his management team. Did Craig MacTavish not use the media to his advantage when he was running the team? Kevin Lowe too? I can’t really recall Steve Tambellini doing much during his time with the Oilers apart from being a puppet for the OBC!
The Oilers have all these ex-players/management types still working for them and they have very good relationships with the local media… C’mon man… A Harvard educated person should be a bit more on the ball than that.
What do you think about Friedman’s comments? Let us know in the comments below!
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Today’s Cap Hit for the Oilers is at $78.1 million, which is $1.4 million under the $79.5 million limit. The Oilers are cap compliant based on this number, which is all they needed to worry about because of the LTIR situation. It is my understanding that normally, teams need to be under the $79.5 million limit with both values (Projected Cap Hit and Today’s Cap Hit) at all times, with LTIR being an exception (although as we learned, I have been wrong in the past). Basically, the Oilers are fine cap wise now for this season, even though it took some subtracting to make it happen.
The two trades are interesting from a hockey standpoint. It was clear that Talbot wasn’t going to be re-signed after Koskinen was extended, so a trade felt inevitable. Talbot was Chiarelli’s big acquisition that was supposed to fix the goaltending. Talbot had one incredible season in 2016-17 where the Oilers made the playoffs largely because of his performance. He had runs in the second half of his first and third seasons here where he was also outstanding. However, he was just too inconsistent to be the goalie that Chiarelli hoped that he would be. He started 3 of his 4 seasons in Edmonton slowly, which put the team behind the 8-ball early each year. It’s not all his fault because the defensive play in front of him was brutal at those times, but he does wear a good portion of that. This year, he could never really get it going for any length of time.
The other trend of his that was noticeable was…
CLICK HEREif you want to find out what else was noticeable about Cam Talbot and read the rest of Ryan’s analysis on the Oilers recent and future moves as we head into the NHL trade deadline. You’re not going to want to miss the portion about Jesse Puljujarvi!
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It finally happened. The day that Oilers fans have been waiting for has arrived. Peter Chiarelli has been fired.
When he was hired, the fan base was excited that an experienced outside voice was taking over. Add Connor McDavid to that, and the expectations were high that Chiarelli would guide this team towards being a contender.
In his 3.5 years here, the Oilers made the playoffs once.
I have spent a long time defending Chiarelli’s biggest trades. I am not going to change my stance on those now that he has been fired. I still believe that the market values of Hall and Larsson along with the Oilers having a surplus of scoring wingers at the time made that Hall trade more even than the talent level would of the two players would suggest. I believe that Chiarelli and McLellan were not fans of how Eberle played without the puck, otherwise, they would’ve held on to him through last season. They are up against the cap without Eberle, so he still would’ve been moved prior to this season if not when it happened. Considering that it was a cap dump, I liked the return they got from NYI because Strome was a young player with some offensive potential (35-40 pts a year max) that contributed when he was here, and that could’ve contributed for a long time had he not been moved for a chance at an immediate increase in offense that clearly didn’t work out.
Chiarelli’s mandate upon arriving in Edmonton was to fix the defense and goaltending. He also needed to rebuild the team as quickly as possible because McDavid was set to start tearing the league apart, and he needed a team behind him if the Oilers were to become a contender. He signed Sekera right away, which was a major upgrade on what existed. He was a major factor in the success of the Oilers in 2016-17, and the loss of that particular version of Sekera has been an obstacle too large for the Oilers to overcome since. He signed Russell, who has been nothing short of a rock for the Oilers. He has his flaws, but he has brought defending to a team that sorely needed it. He paid dearly for Larsson, but Larsson has been another rock back there for the majority of his time as an Oiler (this past weekend aside). He acquired Talbot during that 2015 draft. Talbot has been inconsistent for Edmonton, but he was great during the 2016-17 season. He took a risk on Koskinen this off-season, but it had worked out well so far. Both are marked improvements over what was here when Chiarelli was hired.
Chiarelli did succeed at improving the defense and the goaltending, although you can certainly argue that both positions aren’t where they need to be just yet. There has been a reliance upon young, developing players like Klefbom and Nurse to take on big roles on the blueline. Klefbom is just now scratching the surface of how good he can be, and Nurse isn’t far behind him, but it has taken time for them to get to where they are.
The thing I’ll say about Chiarelli…
If you’d like to read more about what Ryan (@edmoildrops) has to say about Chiarelli, click HERE. He also goes into what he thinks Bob Nicholson meant about “something being in the water”, future moves, and what he’d like to see in the new GM.
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We all probably have seen, heard, or read about Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson’s press conference today announcing the dismissal of Peter Chiarelli and I thought that it was pretty standard but there were two comments near the end of that initial media avail that I thought stood out.
"We're not talking to Ken on any other positions until the end of the year"
Another interesting quote from Bob Nicholson's presser.
Any other positions? Does that mean coach? Consultant? GM? POHO?
— B.L.H. (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast) (@BeerLeagueHeroe) January 24, 2019
I was really, not shocked/surprised, that Nicholson would say this but really intrigued with how this sentence came out.
I have been told that Ken Hitchcock has a deal on the table for a 2-3 year extension and all he has to do is sign it. What I haven’t been told is what position that is for. I can only assume it’s for the coaching position but with how much he’s contributing to the direction of the team’s playing personnel decisions right now, it wouldn’t shock me if President of Hockey Operations was a title he took up in the future.
And that dovetails nicely into this quote with regards to what kind of GM Bob Nicholson will be looking for,
"Who can be the best general manager for the players of today?"
THAT is an interesting quote from Bob Nicholson's presser…
Should give you some insight into how the #Oilers will be going about finding their next GM.
— B.L.H. (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast) (@BeerLeagueHeroe) January 24, 2019
This tells me that Nicholson has clearly made a mistake with Chiarelli and that he wants a general manager that can work with this new generation of hockey player. The “I” generation as Hitchcock calls them. Basically, young folk now need to know what’s in it for them and why that’s a good thing for everybody and they need it ASAP.
Chiarelli rarely made himself available to media or the team and from my gathering was tough to work with. I’m sure you could tell when he did his press conferences or media avails with how he carried himself during them.
So that’s going to change now. The Oilers will do an extensive search for the right man for once and I’m jacked about it and I’ll support the new guy just as I supported Peter Chiarelli during his time.
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The Other Media Avails
Our favorite media man Gene Principe did a short 5-minute interview with Nicholson after the original avail and there were a couple of things he said there as well that I thought really shed some light on the current situation in the Oilers dressing room and a bit more on what kind of GM he’ll be looking for to replace Chiarelli.
You can’t define it in a couple of words or a sentence but I want to make sure that the general manager really can evaluate the players.
If this isn’t a shot at Chiarelli, I’m not sure what is. It’s a fair comment to make too. Look, I spent a lot of time defending Chiarelli’s moves and I won’t take anything back either. He made some dodgy deals that I’ve questioned very publicly too. The Reinhart deal was one and the Spooner deal was another.
I know I’ve been told in the past that the pro scouts that everybody wants fired did their job and would make their recommendations but in fact, and I’ve mentioned this before, Chiarelli would go ahead and make the decisions on player personnel individually despite the reports given.
I think we have really good assets but I think that’s the key and I really want to have open communication. I want all lines of communication to be open in this organization and make sure that’s done within the dressing room so the players feel comfortable speaking to all the staff.
This goes back to what I said before. Chiarelli wasn’t a good communicator, be that with his co-workers, his playing staff, or the media. Nicholson is basically spelling it out here regarding how tense it was to work in the organization with Chia at the helm.
We gotta have a lot of other leaders and we have a good leadership group but we’ve got to make sure everyone in that room leads and we can’t have any passengers and right now I feel we have passengers and we have to sort that out.
This is the money shot in my opinion. I’ve touched on the locker room status briefly previously when I talked about Leon Draisaitl and his preference to play on Connor’s wing. Now, I’m not saying Leon is a passenger because he’s not. He’s clearly a driver on the ice.
We need everyone in the room on the same page. I’m not convinced, at this time, that everyone is on the same page. We need character in that room, we need to make sure everyone believes and has each other’s backs as we go forward here for the rest of the season.
Bobby Nick is telling us that there are players in that dressing room that do not believe this team can make the playoffs. Recently, Connor McDavid, more or less, stated that if you’re not with us, then get the hell out of our dressing room!
What if that message wasn’t for the players? What if it was for the fans and the mainstream media covering the team? What if it was for Peter Chiarelli?
I can’t begin to speculate on who those players might be but it also doesn’t surprise me that there are elements of the team that have lost belief. I am willing to bet that before the deadline, the players that are identified as “not being on the same page” will be moved along, just as they were when Chiarelli was hired.
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The State of the Fanbase
I talked to a friend of mine who’s followed the team since 1972 and he said to me that he was tired. Following the team is no fun right now.
Now, I don’t live in Edmonton, in fact, I live about as far away as one can get from the city and I understand that Alberta isn’t having a great time economically these days. Is it possible that all of this is compounding with the season the Oilers are having?
I feel for the fans who have stuck around but I have a hard time, and this is my own problem, seeing this situation as being as horrible as some are saying. There’s no threat of the team leaving. The people are still filling the stands. I remember a time when both of those things were a reality and now there’s a new arena, the team has probably the most prolific NHL player since Gretzky playing for it, and the future of the team is as bright as it’s ever been.
My friend said that he’s had a hard time even gifting tickets away… That’s insanity to me! I get that going to the game, finding parking, having dinner, etc. is hard but for me personally, I couldn’t care less about those inconveniences. If I had a son/daughter who was passionate about hockey and idolized the Oilers as I did when I was a boy, I’d do my damnedest to find a way to make things work. Just like my father did and we were by no means even an average income family.
That said, I value this gentleman’s words and I trust them very much. Times back home aren’t great.
He also said he’d talked to one of the players and was told,
Chiarelli absolutely had to be fired. It had to be immediate or there was the legitimate potential for very serious problems ahead.
I was left agasp. It had my mind wondering all sorts of ways. And so I asked if McDavid asking out was what he thought the player meant and the answer was, “I was not told that.”
So read into that what you will.
The Vegas Golden Misfits are going to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018!!! Love ’em or hate ’em it’s an amazing story and this is one punk rocker’s way of giving tribute! Click the pic above and get yours today!Elias Pettersson’s nickname is “Alien”. Here’s a shirt to celebrate it! Click the image to buy one!What a hilarious phrase! Click the pic to get yours today!
TSN’s Ryan Rishaug has taken time away from his “Jesse Puljujarvi should be in the AHL” crusade to tell us that the Edmonton Oilers have fired Peter Chiarelli.
Peter Chiarelli has been fired by the Oilers. Done deal
No surprise as we’ve reported over the last few weeks. Chiarelli had time to save his job but nothing he could do was enough. I said at the beginning of the season, if he was GM-ing to save his job, then it was already lost.
The Edmonton Oilers have dismissed Peter Chiarelli as President/GM.
John Shannon also confirms this and I imagine we’re going to hear some entertaining stories in the near future with regards to what went on during Chiarelli’s reign as Oilers GM.
Oilers talk radio is going to be LIT this week!
Who Will Take Over?
My guess is it will be Keith Gretzky. He was the guy running the show yesterday with the Koskinen signing, Jones heading to the AHL, and Spooner/Rattie going on waivers.
But it will still be a collaborative effort going into the trade deadline between former NHL GMs Craig MacTavish and Scott Howson, as well as head coach Ken Hitchcock.
What Happens Now?
No real idea. The Oilers are still very close to the playoffs and could still make it in. With players like Ryan Dzingel and Mats Zuccarello being rumored targets, I think they’re still going to make a go of it.
I would prefer to cut bait and trim the fat though. Clear as much cap space off for next year’s team and then go into this summer with a plan to improve the defense massively. Go get your Alex Pietrangelos, Jake Muzzins, Brett Pesces, or your Tyson Barries. Load that back-end up at give it another go next year.
We’re definitely going to hear names like Cam Talbot, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse, Milan Lucic, Adam Larson, and Jesse Puljujarvi in the rumor mill way more now as those players were the ones Chiarelli had targeted as the core he wanted to build around.
What a hilarious phrase! Click the pic to get yours today!Elias Pettersson’s nickname is “Alien”. Here’s a shirt to celebrate it! Click the image to buy one!Click the image above and get this sweet Leon’s parody shirt!A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!
