EDMONTON OILERS FIRE PETER CHIARELLI

I’m going to try and put together a few words about Peter Chiarelli’s tenure as General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers came to an end after a 3-2 loss to the Atlantic Division’s worst team last night. I’m going to try to remain calm as I do.

I will not miss you, Peter Chiarelli. You were given a roster that would soon contain a generational talent. A roster with talent on the wings, including a future NHL MVP. Two selections in the first round of the deepest draft in years. The foundation was there. You just had to make a couple of moves (or as some blogs have shown, not many moves at all) to make this club a contender.

Instead, you tried to bring heavy hockey to Edmonton absent of speed (or in many cases, talent). You were fairly thrifty when the dollars were on the cheap, but you absolutely crashed the Cabriolet when the stakes got high. No-movement clauses were tossed around like they were great ideas. I’m sure a lot of backslapping occurred when you signed your first big splash to a seven year deal at six million a year with no chance of moving the contract.

That deal is going to cripple the Oilers until 2023. Great job, Pete.

I will not miss you, Peter Chiarelli. You sent a quality NHL player in Jordan Eberle to Long Island for Ryan Strome. You then sent Strome to the Rangers for Ryan Spooner, who has three points in 25 games with the Oilers. You tried to waive Spooner and Ty Rattie (whom you thought was a capable line mate for Connor McDavid) on Monday. The cat was out of the bag when (predictably) no one wanted Ryan Spooner for free, yet they remained on the NHL roster.

I will not miss you, Peter Chiarelli. Last month you traded the club’s fourth leading scorer in Drake Caggiula for a man who broke Connor McDavid’s collarbone in the phenom’s rookie season. A defenceman who might be the club’s seventh best defenceman (I think I’m insulting Caleb Jones by extending that courtesy) who is on the roster for another year at 2.25MM. You said it yourself: he was meaner. Great hockey acumen.

I will not miss you, Peter Chiarelli. Trading a future MVP for a mid-pairing defenceman to shore up the right side. Really, if you can land former Bruins at 42 million dollar deals, splashing some of that cash towards Jason Demers would’ve been a big help. Maybe there was another deal to be had. Maybe there wasn’t. You think we would have learned already.

We’re in year four of a generational talent’s contract. Barring a slew of wins, this club is going to miss the playoffs for the third time in four years since you put your prints on the club. There is little NHL depth on the wings. Kris Russell is playing on the top pair alongside Darnell Nurse right now. Useless contracts are littered around the roster. The club is paying Benoit Pouliot until 2022 not to be here.

Glad you got Mikko Koskinen signed to a three year deal with a limited NTC 30 hours before your departure. Good job. Good effort.

I wish you well in your future endeavours, Pete.

But please, do it away from here.

You’ve done enough.