Chiarelli Talks To The Oilers

Suddenly everything is happening in Edmonton all at once. First the team wins the Draft Lottery. Then Bob Nicholson gets named the team's CEO. The team puts in a call to former Sharks coach Todd McClellan about the head coaching job in Edmonton. And now there might even be real, honest to goodness, changes in upper management. As reported by both Mark Spector and Elliotte Friedman, the Oilers are talking to ex-Bruins General Manger Peter Chiarelli.

Breaking from myself and @SportsnetSpec -- Peter Chiarelli in Edmonton meeting with the Oilers. More to come...

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 22, 2015

The key here is what the position would be...Is President of Hockey Ops an option. Chiarelli flew into Edmonton today

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 22, 2015

In case you were wondering, Chiarelli and Nicholson have worked together in the past; both were part of management team for Canada's gold medal winning hockey team in 2014. In hockey, "Have they worked together in the past?" is always a good first question to ask when anything in the front office comes up.

Right now we obviously don't know what the Oilers and Chiarelli are even talking about, and Chiarelli, like McClellan is going to get calls from a lot of teams. But if they are talking about a position with the organization, then hiring him would almost certainly bring to an end the tenure of either Kevin Lowe or Craig MacTavish. Someone's job might actually be on the line. A week ago I would have told you that there was a 0.00001% chance that one of those two wouldn't be back with the Oilers next season. Now though it's starting to look a little more possible. Maybe a 5% chance.