News Article: Chiarelli breaks his silence

[Tobias Kahun]

Hall for Larsson was a distrastrous trade. If Larsson was a meh top airing D, thats ok. But hes a #4 D at the best of times. Hall went on to win the Hart, Larsson went on to do uhhhh... not much?
Eberle for Strome? Huh. What became of that trade
Talbot was actually a really good move. But its widely speculated the deal was agreed to with MacT and Chiarelli only executed it. But Ill give him full credit. Talbot was good to near elite for 2 years
Klefbom- I will give him credit. Draisaitl was overpaid from day 1 based on comparables. But deal turned out well in the end but LD went beast mode

And you cant just go "1 good move cancels out 1 bad move". The bad moves were way more disastrous than the good moves were beneficial. Like you cant cancel out the Reinhart trade (top 5 worst trade in the past 10 years league-wide) with the Eberle for Strome deal, which was pretty much a near fair swap

After his 1st year, you could see his tendencies from his Boston days showing up, this should have raised major red flags. By his second year, he had completely lost it. After that he was in free fall

Did I miss the year where Larsson was the best D on an oilers team that almost made the third round?

 

[Joey Moss]

The only real positive in his era was the drafting, and I’m not even sure how much credit he can take for that. He’s a poor negotiator and the value lost from Hall, Eberle, Strome, 2015 1st/2nd trades set us back big time.

 

[Paperbagofglory]

He did the same thing in Boston on his way out, blamed his superiors and pointed the finger at Cam Neely for interfering and insisting that Seguin is traded at all costs.

Yeah Peter ok, your bosses say trade Seguin, they did not instruct you to get ripped off though. Its one thing for your bosses to give you instructions, its another thing to show initiative and do the job properly instead of blaming others when you get scammed for every major trade in your GM career.

 

[Aceboogie]

Did I miss the year where Larsson was the best D on an oilers team that made the third round?

That is an interesting reality to create

The only reason Larsson ever had any hype was because in the year after the trade, Oiler fans had to manufacture all of the hype in order to make swallowing the Hall trade a bit easier. Once the Hall trade was enough in the rear view mirror (after the 1st season), the valuations of Larsson came back to normal. Which was that hes a decent middle pairing D

The way some Oilers fans were thrusting unjustified praise on Larsson to deal with the Hall trade is similar to what Flames fans did with Hanafin to try and deal with the Hamilton trade.

 

[Aceboogie]

But its hard to deny his drafting record. That continues to look better and better

funny thing happens when you draft skill in later rounds, and not poor skating defensive D, or big coke machines

 

[Tobias Kahun]

That is an interesting reality to create

The only reason Larsson ever had any hype was because in the year after the trade, Oiler fans had to manufacture all of the hype in order to make swallowing the Hall trade a bit easier. Once the Hall trade was enough in the rear view mirror (after the 1st season), the valuations of Larsson came back to normal. Which was that hes a decent middle pairing D

The way some Oilers fans were thrusting unjustified praise on Larsson to deal with the Hall trade is similar to what Flames fans did with Hanafin to try and deal with the Hamilton trade.

Interesting reality?

Larsson outplayed Hall in the first year after the trade.

 

[ZenOil]

2+2=whatever the f*** Chiarelli wants

 

[9GWG9]

Da Nile isn’t just a river in Egypt I see....

 

[Aceboogie]

Interesting reality?

Larsson outplayed Hall in the first year after the trade.

I cant comment much on Hall in NJ, but I can comment on Larsson and hes been a middle pairing caliber D from day 1 here. Thats all Ill say on the matter, the trade has been beaten to death

My only other comment will be that I agree with post above about how Chiarellis statements now are very similar to his statements after being fired from Boston where he said Neely was pulling the strings on many of his deals. Alot of us, including myself, believed (or wished that to be true). He then said he had an agreement for him being hired here was full autonomy. So either Chiarelli is a complete liar (more likely), or he allowed the Oilers org to walk all over him

 

[Cloned]

Chiarelli was a terrible GM.

The Oilers executives were a terrible leadership group.

These things don't have to be mutually exclusive.

The fact that both of these things were true at the same time caused an unfortunate negative synergy. Chiarelli became an absurdly bad GM instead of a merely terrible one.

 

[frag2]

Did the Reinhart and Hall trades and the Lucic signing all happen in his last season?

He was trash from the beginning. It was only masked for a short time when the team went on a fluke run for one season. Them making the playoffs one year doesn't justify the Reinhart, Hall and Lucic moves.

As far as the farm team is concerned, he didn't do anything special. The Oilers young players/prospects are players that every organization has and a lot in more abundance. It's an improving prospect pool but still average and they did their best to ruin Yamamoto in Chia's tenure. I bet Bouchard would have been rushed to the show as well.
The Draisaitl contract is the one special thing he did. Thanks for that Chia, now get out.

IIRC, he wanted Bouchard up the entire time; TMac said no and purposely scratched him until Chia sent him down.

 

[BudBundy]

For the record, he still did good things for the organization regarding amateur scouting and prospect development.

That’s like saying Stalin did some good things for the Russian department of agriculture.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Tis better to be thought a fool...

That summer of 2017 was probably the worst offseason this team has ever had.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Interesting read

but I think when he states " do things my way"--I am having a flashback to the Yakopov draft and how every oiler scout and Baghdad Bob had the Oilers taking the D man the BJS took 12 hours before the draft only to have the owner decide on something else.

I am sort of hoping Katz sees Holland and his work in Detroit and lets Holland run the ship without monday morning QBing on the situation

 

[BudBundy]

Not popular but true.

Outside the Reinhart trade he had far more good moves than bad.

Hall was a wash imo. Sure nice to get a pick or something but Hall wasn't exactly helping the team.

Eberle Strome was brilliant.

Talbot was meh but started out well.

Maroon very good.

Klefbom and Draisaitl deals great.

Very good drafting.

That last year tho... yuk.

What a whitewash.

 

[Hynh]

I see he gets some praise for the Drai contract, but in reality, he was the one who set the new market for that type of situation. He could have signed him for 7.5 (for example) and that would have set the market too, but 1M cheaper across the board.

People always say this but there was nothing stopping Draisaitl's camp from holding out for $8.5M x 8 and then
"settling" for a 2 or 3 year bridge during training camp. Idiots would praise Chiarelli for "holding firm" and "using the RFA status leverage" to get the player on a "team friendly" deal. The Oilers would then pay him $12.5M after a 50-55-105 year last year or his current 43-67-110 year.

 

[Cloned]

People always say this but there was nothing stopping Draisaitl's camp from holding out for $8.5M x 8 and then
"settling" for a 2 or 3 year bridge during training camp. Idiots would praise Chiarelli for "holding firm" and "using the RFA status leverage" to get the player on a "team friendly" deal. The Oilers would then pay him $12.5M after a 50-55-105 year last year or his current 43-67-110 year.

The question is if you can be prepared to give the benefit of the doubt to someone renown for his cap mismanagement and penchant for overpaying on contract signings. Personally, I won't.

 

[Raised Fist Republic]

I’m looking for help with the site rules on posting if anyone can help me out?

I was thread banned in the general forum for asking if a specific person had already resolved COVID. “Trolling” With no explanation on how in sweet heck that could possibly be trolling. I’m just not getting this place. I’m haven’t been able to get guidance/response from any mods yet.

 

[Aerchon]

What a whitewash.

Hindsight blackwashes? many of Chiarelli's moves.

The NJD board was pretty bummed to lose Larsson who was currently their best defenseman and trending upward. Hall was trending poorly and was utter shiet for NJD that first year. Was shiet after his "MVP" year.

Even the terrible Lucic trade "shouldn't" have been this bad this early. He was the #1 ranked UFA that took less money than he could have gotten.

Reinhart deal sucked. Everything after 2017 omfg bad. But Chiarelli does not get the credit due for 2016-2017 and many other good moves and drafting.

 

[Smartguy]

That is an interesting reality to create

The only reason Larsson ever had any hype was because in the year after the trade, Oiler fans had to manufacture all of the hype in order to make swallowing the Hall trade a bit easier. Once the Hall trade was enough in the rear view mirror (after the 1st season), the valuations of Larsson came back to normal. Which was that hes a decent middle pairing D

The way some Oilers fans were thrusting unjustified praise on Larsson to deal with the Hall trade is similar to what Flames fans did with Hanafin to try and deal with the Hamilton trade.

This is another completely wrong way to look at it, Larsson was a dominant defenseman that season. So physical and a solid shut down defenseman, among the best in the league that year. The following year was a disaster but Larsson was still solid, until his father died, while visiting Adam in Edmonton during the season, I believe it was the fathers trip, Larsson took time away after that, understandably so, and was very shaken up by that. After that though Larsson has never been the same.

To say it was the Oiler manufacturing that that season is not true, Larsson and Klefbom were both playing the best hockey of their career, over what one would view as normal for them, and people thought that would continue, it didn’t.

I hate that trade more than anyone, hated and denounced it at the time and still hate it, but I would gladly eat crow on that if Larsson played the way he did that first season here every game.

I still like Larsson, unfortunately for him he will never live up to that trade, so people can’t judge him objectively, but he still solid at breaking up the cycle and can play a physical brand of hockey.

 

[Tyrolean]

Did I miss the year where Larsson was the best D on an oilers team that made the third round?

Yes because Oilers only made the 2nd round.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Yes because Oilers only made the 2nd round.

Damnit, missing the word "almost" in there.

You got me.

 

[ConnorMcNugesaitl]

I didn't read page one or two but page three is a hilarious joke of people trying to one up each other in their attempts to rewrite history in attempts to make Chiarelli and Larsson look better for some reason.

Unfortunately for these people facts don't care about your opinions and there's more than enough evidence to bury Chiarelli.

 

[belair]

Chia did seem to target the right players (Sergachev, Hintz, Marino, then Bear, Jones, etc.) in his draft. He was in on Stetcher before Cags in terms of College FA pursuit.... so signing non-NHL FA he's was alright.

It's his pro scout eval which was terrible. Gryba? DD? Lucic?

Apparently the Oilers only employed two of them during his tenure.

I have no interest delving back into this debate. Everything that can be said's been said. But one thing that sticks out from his comments is that he sends to think his moves beyond the Oilers' playoff season was in some way an acceleration of the process.

From what's been written about the interview with Garrioch, his recollection of that period deviate pretty far from what actually occurred. If we're being honest with ourselves, there was no potential of accelerating the process immediately beyond that season. Our lack of prospects in the system paired with the cap in inflation limited our ability to improve the immediate product on the ice.

Chia's biggest misstep was his first trade. And it's one I wasn't immediately critical of. It made sense if it worked. The Oilers needed to improve the defense. But Reinhart was a dud. Kind of ridiculous he doesn't mention this in the interview at all.

 

[SwedishFire]

So essentially he's saying he had a long term plan, but Katz/the OBC pressured him into making win-now trades.

Doesn't seem all that far-fetched to me.

Im on the same route here.
From the text, I got the feeling he got a bit greedy. It was clear as day, they wanted to reach playoff, and it was great that they did, the city and the team I think really needed it.

But getting greedy and just dump everything was a disaster. buying out Pouliot, why not just wave him?
Trading Eberle that quick, there was no meaning to do it that fast.
Was he eaten by the media, that pushed for a Oilers stanley cup run, with the stupid argument of, "Ohhh McDavids contract is till free, we should RUN FOR IT!!!" If so, that is the most stupid thing.

No, I also get that Katz is stressed by the fans, and then stresses his manager. Thats idiotic.

The really weird things was happening the summer 2018 Nothing happened. Chiarelli was just hovering over the waiver-wire, after putting himself in capspace hell in record time. Already there they should have fired him, not beacuase of just Chiarelli, beacuase Chiarelli and Lowe &Katz & Co. was not riding the same boat. It that case, you need to just split up before more damage come. Cause communication and strategy is the most important, and if someone of either part cant accept that, they need to go. But they didnt.

The summer of 2018 will still be a mystery, of why Chiarelli just let everything fall. He seems to even not know himself.