Are you justifying Chiarelli's failure with the previous managents even worse failure?
Looking at the roster and draft picks that Chiarelli started with are you satisfied with the current roster heading into this season?
there's some point there, in that we are so eager for improvement, not just because we have McDavid but because we had a legendary span of losing before that. Perhaps there is some unfair pressure on Chiarelli.
If you look at what Chiarelli inherited, there were great things but also huge gaps that aren't fixable with simple deals, such as a 1D. There was also never a clear moment to get that player that Chia missed out on.
And ultimately, I agree that our roster isn't good enough after this time, but it's exaggerated now because Sekera has had these unpredictable issues and he is a solid Dman. Also, Talbot had a rough year, so although he seems like a weak addition right now, imo he does represent a big win from Chiarelli. If you don't have a good goalie, you're done. Teams struggle for years if they don't have a goalie. I'd argue that that issue is currently wrecking the Flames' rebuild.
Also, I choose to believe Nicholson when he says that Chia's saving grace is the state of our drafting, scouting and development, which apparently has benefited greatly because of decisions that Chia has made to remake our system. Nicholson has some motive to pump up Chia's tires, but to me he seems like a guy who doesn't hold his tongue, and even in that speech where he praised Chiarelli it almost sounded like he was trashing some other aspects of his performance so far.
My opinion of the team is that Chiarelli has generally done a good job, although he's dogged by some bad decisions along the way. But I get it. He NEEDED to creates wins ASAP, which is why he was so aggressive, and aggressiveness in GM is destined to lead to some bad moves.
Ultimately, I have one unambiguous criticism of Chiarelli: He has utterly and completely failed to bring in any sort of offensive defenseman. Benning was advertised as such, but that was quickly shown to be an exaggeration. Sekera too, and now the rhetoric is pushing that Nurse could possibly be that guy (spoiler alert: no). Even now, Chia says that drafting Bouchard has taken away organizational desire to get a OFD, and to me that potentially condemns our team not just for this upcoming season but for several after, and that assumes that Bouchard pans out. Btw, over the years there have been OFD available that Chia's struck out on. Even now, with Faulk right there, he is a player who couldn't be more available unless we're not on his NTC list. If he would come here though, I really don't see any excuse why we would not be the #1 front runner to get him. But anyway, there must be others available.
Btw, I'm not saying that our defense has no offensive skill. We have some guys who can put up okay numbers if they play over their heads. It's just that without that one pivotal guy one the blue line, it has a cascading effect where everyone else looks bad is playing above their ability when it comes to figuring out what to do with the puck in the offensive zone.