The most interesting part is that Chiarelli didn't just crater the Edmonton Oilers, but he added radioactive wasteland with some of his contracts (Lucic, Russell etc.). Or we can give the OBC credit, either way, it's more than just a crater in the ground. The current is pretty effed, but the longer term future is also super messed up too.
I think Oilers have to wait out the roster for around 2-3 years before the the ground clears enough to even start hoping for growth. In Chicago's situation, they leaned heavily on drafting and a development system to surround the core with ELC. Edmonton doesn't have that and their prospects are stunting/losing value daily. A retool doesn't look likely due to bottomed out value of prospects and a full on rebuild won't work either as the value on their roster (other than maybe Draisaitl and RNH) is decimated and the optics of moving their highest value player is so bad, that they might as well relocate if they go that route.
Another interesting part is that they haven't even started remediation of the effed up power plant leaking radiation in the OBC.
So where does Edmonton go from here? It's literally dead ends in many directions with no significant idea of an exodus of this catastrophe.
I mean, there's obviously some fans who will always delight at the failures of the Oilers, but it's insane it's at a level that was not predictable prior to Chiarelli's start. They probably are watched as events unfolded like this:
