Kevin Lowe is a better GM than Chiarelli, the Oilers were competitive for a playoff berth for like 7/8 seasons as GM and made the Finals once. He brought in Pronger, Roloson and even though people crap on his drafting, he picked Hemsky, Eberle, Stoll all outside of the top 10 ... I see zero gauruntees Yamamoto or Puljujarvi are even as good as Hemsky.
Teams get overrated after Cinderella runs all the time, after the Avalanche had a "break out" year in 13-14, a lot of people had them pencilled into a Finals soon. After 14-15, a lot of people had the Flames being the next powerhouse (lol).
Oilers on paper have a lot of glaring weaknesses if one looks objectively. Lines 2, 3, and 4 could have a lot of trouble scoring and there's not much offence on the blue line. Talbot has been up and down in Edmonton and the back up is some European guy who has 4 games total NHL experience, so if Talbot goes south ... good luck with that.
As for McLellan, I think it was a mistake keeping him, I don't think he is ever going to lead this team anywhere. He does not adjust and in Edmonton he does not have the benefit of a team as deep as he did in San Jose and that's a problem for him. If this team is not .500 minimum after 10-12 games I think this dude is in deep crap.