:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59259171/941585458.jpg.0.jpg)
We’ve all gotten our angst out about Peter Chiarelli’s moves over the last two years. It just so happens that all this good stuff is happening right now.
With a first-period assist vs. Philly, NYI's Mathew Barzal becomes the first rookie since Evgeni Malkin in 2006-07 to score 80 points, AND the first rookie since Sidney Crosby in 2005-06 to hit 60 assists.
— Bruce McCurdy (@BruceMcCurdy) April 3, 2018
80 GP, 20-60-80, nice.
I ain’t even mad about Barzal. I mean, yeah, the Oilers could use 60 points right now, but that’s beside the point.
I mean, sure, the Oilers should have drafted the first rookie to score 60 points since Sidney Crosby in 05-06. If you talk to enough people, they’ll tell you that the Oilers weren’t going to draft him. That’s cause enough for concern, but I’ll just go ahead and assume that the Oilers were going to draft someone...’heavier’.
Instead, you’ll recall that the Oilers packaged the 16th overall pick along with the 33rd overall pick in 2015 and shipped both to the New York Islanders. Griffin Reinhart would last two seasons with the Oilers before being the player selected in the Vegas Expansion Draft. Reinhart appeared in 29 games with the Oilers. It was a very bad trade.
Taylor Hall now has three points on the night and 92 for the season.
— Chris Ryan (@ChrisRyan_NJ) April 4, 2018
The Devils are going to the playoffs. I remember the playoffs, maybe the Oilers will see them again someday. The Jordan Eberle trade was bad, the Taylor Hall trade should be the nail in Chiarelli’s coffin even though it was made nearly two years ago. He’s got 92 points right now. By the time I’m done complaining about him being in New Jersey, he could have a couple more.
The kick in the pants? These two moves should be enough to eliminate Peter Chiarelli from having the opportunity to make another catastrophic move on this club, but he’s made some other, not quite equally poor moves to help keep the Oilers on the laughing side of the standings. Call it the confetti of the party, there’s Jordan Eberle to the Islanders for 33 point Ryan Strome, there’s Pat Maroon for a third round pick and J.D. Dudek, there’s signing Kris Russell and Milan Lucic to no-movement clauses. The ship has sailed. Get him away. Get him far away.
The season is lost. It’s been a season where the Oilers have lost forty games in regulation. A season that has Ty Rattie on the top line due in part to a lack of scoring wingers. A season that features the NHL’s best player about to win the scoring title for the second year in a row on a club that will inexplicably miss the playoffs by about 20 points.
There are two games remaining in the season. These two games should be the last two games that Peter Chiarelli sees as the General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers.