I mean it's easy to be negative 24/7 with the Oilers and turn out right most of the time.
Chia made some good moves early on with one big blunder in the Reinhart trade. Personally I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for that move (as much as I hated it) because he also brought in guys like Sekera, Maroon, Talbot, Larsson, Letestu and Kassian who ended up being big contributors to this team in 16/17.
It's every move since then that has sunk this team. And Sekera's injuries combined with Talbot suddenly becoming terrible certainly hasn't helped.
You mean amnesia in the same way that the people who crapped on Chia from day 1 forgets the 16/17 season where the Oilers was a legitimately good team? That doesn't count at all? People weren't right to support him after his moves helped the Oilers go deep in the playoffs for the first time since 2006?
I gave Chiarelli the benefit of the doubt and admittedly drank the kool aid that Cam Neely was the issue in Boston, not Chiarelli. Mostly because of the Bruins horrible offseason right after Chiarelli got fired
Then came the Reinhart deal, I gave him another excuse because I thought maybe Green/MacT were in his ear and he needed to desperately make a trade given Hamilton just got dealt right before. The Talbot trade was a plus to me, so I was ok with the 2015 draft (loved the later round picks)
The Hall trade was what did me in. This showed me instantly that it wasnt Neely, it wasnt MacT. Chiarelli legitmately thought that building a winner meant overpaying for depth players. He was able to do this in Boston and have those dumb trades masked because he had Chara, Bergeron, Krecji Rask and Marchand. The Hall trade was when his true colors came out. I think it was at this time i had lost all hope (even though it was early on), he had the dumbs that you cant fix. Other posters took that sliver of justification and ran with it pretty far to make the trade seem better than it was.
Then came the Eberle trade and just confirmed how dumb/outdated Chiarelli is. I can see a tiny sliver of justification for the Hall deal, being that the Oilers were in pretty dire need, GMs coudl squeeze Chiarelli, and Larsson was up and coming. But the Eberle deal is unjustifiable. Traded the offseason after the Oilers had a solid season, no way we should be selling at a discount. Then he trades a legit top 6 forward for a pure and simple bottom 6 forward.
The third thing that got me was Chiarellis complete lack of urgency to do anything really. He just does nothing. There has been a far number of roster movement the past 3 years and Chiarelli isnt anywhere near it (unless hes the guy getting the raw end of the deal). Like we need a puck moving RHD, so instead of searching for one, we overpay for a LHD will no puck moving ability, simply because hes alreayd ont he team so its easier to resign
The 16/17 Oilers also had issues. They just got a ton of luck with injuries and schedule (already been shown numerous times). Basically everything went right for them and they were mearly a playoff team. Once they had normal injuries, they were going to be in tough. This was discussed even as the playoffs were going on but people just asusmed Oilers were going to be legit going forward
