In Defense of Chiarelli

redgrant

Registered User
Nov 2, 2013
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The easiest thing to do is over react but Ive tried to look at this trade from several angles. Here are my comments:

1. The first and most important point is this team was awful last year and for several years given the fact they have failed time and time again to address their deplorable defence specifically a top pairing right handed defenseman.

2. No one expected Columbus to pass on Puljujarvi. In fact Chia was shrewd enough to sense this and not trade to obtain an NHL ready winger.

3. As a result of the Hall trade and the events of the draft plus pending UFA signings as of July 1 Edmontons top 2 line winger depth will likely be interchangeable between Lucic Pouliot Eberle Yakupov and Puljujarvi with Draisaitl and Nuge having wing duty options. That means there would likely be a rotation of 6 wingers for 2 top spots if they dont roll 3 offensive lines.

4. The large amount of talented wingers meant that certainly someone was going to have to go to address the lack of that top pairing right handed defenseman. The wing is the easiest position to fill while as we saw today the most valuable commodity is a top pairing defenseman.

5. While I cant prove this I have no doubt Chiarelli spoke with 25+ other teams regarding potential trades for this RHD man. As a result, there is ZERO evidence that some fantasy Hall for Faulk or Hall for Hamonic or Eberle + Nuge for Subban was there for the taking. The trade was the best one available or it was another year with no 25 minute a night RHDman.

6. For all the people upset with this trade its the Einstein quote of 'insanity is doing the same time over and over expecting different results'. Hall on this team with no RHD was a recipe for another missed playoff season. We will have to see if having Larsson playing 25 minutes a night will change anything but it is proven that Hall with no RHD was a flawed equation.

7. On paper the Oilers lose this trade when you say they traded a top 5 winger for a 25 minute a night dman with little offense. When you add in they have a surplus of offensive talent and zero defensive depth things sound better.

8. Teams like Pittsburgh have proven that you can win with wingers like Hornquvist, Hagelin and Kunitz. I cannot think of any team this decade that won without bonafide 25 minute a night dman.

9. Regarding Larsson i havent watched many NJD games to judge. Doing some research today I like first of all that he has tremendous upside and made a massive improvement from last year going by his stats. Hes plays a ton of minutes and it appears he gets a lot of D zone starts against the toughest competition. Also hes locked in for several years on a good contract.

10. The downsides I see with Larsson is his offense. Chiarelli already acknowledged hes not a 'sexy defenseman'. I believe the strategy will be guys like Klefbom and Larsson to outlet to players like McDavid.

At the end of the day Chiarelli was damned if he didnt address the gaping hole on defense. It appears the cost to address this was Hall and the value for Hall was a player like Larsson. Im okay with this as I was not one of the people expecting a Faulk for Hall type trade.

Hopefully things work out. None of us knows for sure right now.
 

aki

Registered User
Apr 7, 2003
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5. While I cant prove this I have no doubt Chiarelli spoke with 25+ other teams regarding potential trades for this RHD man. As a result, there is ZERO evidence that some fantasy Hall for Faulk or Hall for Hamonic or Eberle + Nuge for Subban was there for the taking. The trade was the best one available or it was another year with no 25 minute a night RHDman.

5(a). The fact that Chia had to make this trade is a testament to how poorly Tambo and MacT built the team.
 

PinSeeker

Really narrowed his eyyyyyyyyyesssssss
Aug 22, 2005
4,100
1,205
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Subtract Hall and add Lucic, Larsson, and Demers and we are a better hockey team.

Some may argur subtracting Hall loses offense, the reality was we were well below average offensively because our D cannot get out of their own zone or move the puck. Larsson addresses that and Lucic will surely help with his board play.

I feel we are a better club *if* those other two moves happen also.
 

TheNumber4

Registered User
Nov 11, 2011
35,793
39,940
The biggest defence of Chia is that these moves make our team BETTER. I truly beleive this.

Lucic can bring about 80% of Halls offense. But brings grit, intimidation, fighting, hitting, better cycling, and a better compliment to McDavid. So how I see it very SLIGHT downgrade from Hall to Lucic.

Larsson automatically becomes are best 1st pass defencemen and probably our most solid shut down defenceman. BOTH are qualities we haven't had. Larsson becomes a 30 point defencemen on this team automatically with our forwards and has the potential to be a true #1 D. HUGE upgrade because we had NOTHING on the Right Side last year.

Puljujarvi steps in next year on RW. A top 3 talent probably on the same level as Hall but with a higher upside is ready to play right away and contribute. Wouldn't be surprised to see Puljujarvi be the better player than Hall and sooner rather than later.
 

McCombo

Registered User
Nov 16, 2013
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Thumbs up for OP not going mental like 95% have :laugh: Still got McDavid, Draisatl, RNH, Puljujärvi, Eberle and Lucic is coming.
 

rosemount289

Registered User
Feb 12, 2008
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I would .................???

Subtract Hall and add Lucic, Larsson, and Demers and we are a better hockey team.

Some may argur subtracting Hall loses offense, the reality was we were well below average offensively because our D cannot get out of their own zone or move the puck. Larsson addresses that and Lucic will surely help with his board play.

I feel we are a better club *if* those other two moves happen also.


I would agree.............if we add those other players on Friday.......if not........all those Lowe and MacT haters better come out and include Chiarelli on the list of least desired GMs' in Oiler history.
 

redgrant

Registered User
Nov 2, 2013
6,306
3,688
**** that. We got bent over.

We'll please share.

Would you have preferred to had the same team with Taylor hall again knowing no top right hand dman was a proven recipie for no playoffs?

Or would you sacrifice Taylor hall in the hopes that a defense man could help this team make the playoffs?

Please do share the "superior" trade options that Chiarelli did not exercise.
 

mikeyz

Registered User
Dec 3, 2013
7,202
6,227
**** that. We got bent over.

This!!!

Chiarelli has essentially traded Seguin and Hall for Larsson and Louie Erikkson during his GM career!

It absolutely boggles my mind how this guy still has a job in the NHL.
 

RattsSSV

Слава Україні - F*** Putin
May 4, 2006
9,458
9,107
We'll please share.

Would you have preferred to had the same team with Taylor hall again knowing no top right hand dman was a proven recipie for no playoffs?

Or would you sacrifice Taylor hall in the hopes that a defense man could help this team make the playoffs?

Please do share the "superior" trade options that Chiarelli did not exercise.

So in your opinion Larsson is a top RHD?
 

Homesick

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Aug 2, 2005
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At least Chiarelli isn't content to sit on his ass hoping that we move out of 29th place just by the golden kids "maturing."
I'm not happy with the trade but I also have no idea what the conversations were like with other GM's in the league. If Montreal would rather take an older declining Weber with a horrible contract over Hall then wingers really dont have a lot of value.

If Faulk,Hamonic,Lindholm etc get traded for Landeskog, Skinner, Tatar type winger then freak out. I doubt it happens
 

belair

Jay Woodcroft Unemployment Stance
Apr 9, 2010
38,537
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I'm not going to defend Chiarelli here because I believe he made a trade under a certain level of duress. Especially after making a comment like 'the market is softening' only to give up his most productive forward in a one-for-one deal less than a week later.

That being said...prepare to see the New Jersey Devils in the draft lottery often over the next few seasons.

Greene - XXXX
XXXX - Severson
Auvitu - Santini
Jacobs

This is a team with very little waiting in the wings in terms of defensive prospects.

Our team now...

Klefbom - Larsson
Sekera - Fayne
Davidson - XXXX
Reinhart
Nurse

This is a lot closer to a playoff caliber defense than it's ever been in the past six years. And after Lucic filling Hall's void, we still have a large amount of cap for future signings.
 

rosemount289

Registered User
Feb 12, 2008
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I did not..........???

At least Chiarelli isn't content to sit on his ass hoping that we move out of 29th place just by the golden kids "maturing."
I'm not happy with the trade but I also have no idea what the conversations were like with other GM's in the league. If Montreal would rather take an older declining Weber with a horrible contract over Hall then wingers really dont have a lot of value.

If Faulk,Hamonic,Lindholm etc get traded for Landeskog, Skinner, Tatar type winger then freak out. I doubt it happens


I did not realize this but someone mentioned that from the NHL 2010 draft..........the first six picks.........including now......Taylor Hall....has been traded (Hall, Seguin, Gudbranson, Johansen, Niederreiter, Connolly).
 

MessierII

Registered User
Aug 10, 2011
27,644
16,187
Hall is overrated by us anyways. I was livid with the way he disappeared this season when McDavid was healthy and he wasn't the guy. He looked like he had lost a step and wasn't playing with the same passion. He was still a turnover machine. Amongst the worst in the NHL. I bet Chiarelli felt the same about his disappearing act. We won the first two games on mcdavids back and could have made a serious run but Hall chose then to fall off. I'm happy with this move because it's a culture change and I believe Larsson is a top pairing D who still has room to grow. When we sign Demers and Lucic we will be a playoff team and everyone will have forgotten about Taylor Hall.
 

Gone

Fire KLowe
Aug 9, 2005
4,098
43
Earth
We'll please share.

Would you have preferred to had the same team with Taylor hall again knowing no top right hand dman was a proven recipie for no playoffs?

Or would you sacrifice Taylor hall in the hopes that a defense man could help this team make the playoffs?

Please do share the "superior" trade options that Chiarelli did not exercise.

Hall tilts the ice every time he is out there. D-man or not, he could do it alone. Hall is an all-star.

When you trade an all star expect to get one in return; Chia got us the next Tom Poti. Fire Chia before he trades McDavid for pieces.
 

KeithIsActuallyBad

You thrust your pelvis, huh!
Apr 12, 2010
71,804
30,723
Calgary
Hall tilts the ice every time he is out there. D-man or not, he could do it alone. Hall is an all-star.

When you trade an all star expect to get one in return; Chia got us the next Tom Poti. Fire Chia before he trades McDavid for pieces.

Hall is a great winger. That's it.

Tilting the ice is a bit of an exaggeration.
 

TFHockey

The CEO of 7-8-0
May 16, 2014
7,061
4,456
Edmonton
So in your opinion Larsson is a top RHD?

Wasn't Larsson playing that exact role in NJ? I am not thrilled with the cost but Larsson is exactly what we needed to target.

Am I off about this? The limited number of NJD games I caught showed me Larsson was doing the heavy lifting with Andy Greene. If I am wrong someone clear that up for me.
 

Zaddy

Registered User
Feb 8, 2013
13,058
5,850
I'm not going to defend Chiarelli here because I believe he made a trade under a certain level of duress. Especially after making a comment like 'the market is softening' only to give up his most productive forward in a one-for-one deal less than a week later.

That being said...prepare to see the New Jersey Devils in the draft lottery often over the next few seasons.

Greene - XXXX
XXXX - Severson
Auvitu - Santini
Jacobs

This is a team with very little waiting in the wings in terms of defensive prospects.

Our team now...

Klefbom - Larsson
Sekera - Fayne
Davidson - XXXX
Reinhart
Nurse

This is a lot closer to a playoff caliber defense than it's ever been in the past six years. And after Lucic filling Hall's void, we still have a large amount of cap for future signings.

It'll be fun if Oilers get into the playoffs while NJ is a bottom-five team next year.
 

Dorian2

Define that balance
Jul 17, 2009
12,248
2,229
Edmonton
Since the fire Chia thread is at 5 pages, I thought I'd help this threads cause. While I'm not crazy about the trade, Chia did what he needed. Good 1st post OP.
 

Crabapple

Registered User
Jun 17, 2010
5,015
1,537
Edmonton
If Larsson can get us out of the toilet it'll be worth it. What's the best we've ever done with Hall being the guy, 24th? I'm ready for drastic measures to make this team better. Will this help? Who knows, today it doesn't seem like it. But I'm willing to trust Chia and see what happens.
 

Mr Positive

Cap Crunch Incoming
Nov 20, 2013
35,794
16,183
I'm not going to defend Chiarelli here because I believe he made a trade under a certain level of duress. Especially after making a comment like 'the market is softening' only to give up his most productive forward in a one-for-one deal less than a week later.

That being said...prepare to see the New Jersey Devils in the draft lottery often over the next few seasons.

Greene - XXXX
XXXX - Severson
Auvitu - Santini
Jacobs

This is a team with very little waiting in the wings in terms of defensive prospects.

Our team now...

Klefbom - Larsson
Sekera - Fayne
Davidson - XXXX
Reinhart
Nurse

This is a lot closer to a playoff caliber defense than it's ever been in the past six years. And after Lucic filling Hall's void, we still have a large amount of cap for future signings.

Based on Chiarelli's statements, he's going after an offensive defenseman still, so it will be

Klefbom Larsson
Sekera XXXX
Davidson Fayne
Oesterle Gryba

so it's even better than you think. That bottom pairing can take a lot of hard assignments, and can even function as a decent 2nd pairing in case of injury. We're about to be a much better team. Last season, we gave significant minutes to Nurse, Reinhart, and Schultz. We also gave time for Ference, Nikitin, Clendening, Pardy, and Hunt. Those days are over
 

KidLine93

Registered User
May 15, 2012
5,928
2,136
I was always high on Larsson

But it stings to know we barely missed on on RNH for Jones and ended up trading Hall for Larsson
 

booyakasha

Registered User
Oct 11, 2007
11,823
5,632
Edmonton, AB
This!!!

Chiarelli has essentially traded Seguin and Hall for Larsson and Louie Erikkson during his GM career!

It absolutely boggles my mind how this guy still has a job in the NHL.

+1

It's truly mind boogling.

Boston could get this clown out fast enough, and now I know why.
 

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