What was your breaking point with Chia Pet?

[Raoul Duke]

Hall.

Such a plethora of terrible management listed here though.
Kinda says it all.

Strange so many picked moves from this season. I didn’t think any of this last set of desperation moves were even close to as damaging as prior screw ups. As nonsensical and terrible as they were.

Reading this thread was humorous and almost nostalgic. Or maybe cathartic is the word.

Chia sticking around long enough to turn everyone against him may have brought some unity to the board. In the midst of the wreckage, he might just have brought this community together.

 

[bobbythebrain]

2 summers ago. It was a trifecta

When he rewarded Russel w/ an inflated loyalty contract, I knew he learned nothing from his Boston firing

not shutting up about pending offersheets and then overpaying Drai. He gave the gun to Drai's agent

Dumping Eberle, and trying to convince the fanbase it was a cap move. Again, more poor asset management showing he literally did not change

 

[Panda Bear]

My last straw with him was refusing to fire McLellan outright at the end of last season.

Horrible decision, and it illustrated the amount of discord within the organization. No confidence in any direction from players to coach to management to owners and executives, and that means there's no cohesion.

Hitchcock is a good add because there's confidence in him from all directions, but the organization itself isn't working.

 

[Zerotonine]

The Manning trade. Talk about clueless.

100 percent .if there wasn't already waves in the dressing room this trade literally brought in a tsunami

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

technically a gm is fireable if he misses the playoffs.

 

[Panda Bear]

2 summers ago. It was a trifecta

When he rewarded Russel w/ an inflated loyalty contract, I knew he learned nothing from his Boston firing

not shutting up about pending offersheets and then overpaying Drai. He gave the gun to Drai's agent

Dumping Eberle, and trying to convince the fanbase it was a cap move. Again, more poor asset management showing he literally did not change

I lost straws at the first two, but not the second. I'm not sure how much more value Chia could have squeezed out of Eberle.

 

[lakai17]

That Reinhart trade. When Barzal is left on the draft board at #16 you draft him nevermind team needs. That 2nd rounder was high as well.

McDavid + Barzal would have been wonders.

 

[BudBundy]

I hated him for trading Hall. The Lucic contract was the cherry on the turd sundae.

 

[Xelebes]

Later than most, if only because at that point I was already apathetic. The Manning trade told me he had to go. Despite all my misgivings about Katz and the OBC, the trade was a sign that he could simply not be spared.

 

[Tyrolean]

Some positives amongst a sea of negatives: Talbot (for 1 year) Maroon, Kassian (at the time), Chaisson, Koskinen? Lost Versteeg (he was good for the Flames for exactly one year). Maybe a few other than 1st rounds picks still to bear fruit.

 

[Tyrolean]

Reinhart trade was absolute worst also Lucic signing almost equally bad. Should have been fired on the spot.

 

[Jumptheshark]

That Reinhart trade. When Barzal is left on the draft board at #16 you draft him nevermind team needs. That 2nd rounder was high as well.

McDavid + Barzal would have been wonders.

if we do not take Barzal--we would have taken a D and that is what the talking heads said walking into the draft and after the draft--the names that they mention are Chabot, Juulson and Larsson(Jacob)--Oilers were going D--we were never going to take Barzel--the logic behind the trade was the oilers thought they were getting an NHL ready D man and not one they would need to wait 2 to 4 years to get to the NHL..

We need to move beyond that "we could have had Barzel" but we had Nuge, Leon D and McDavid down the middle when it came our time to draft 16th overall..

We needed D and if we had not traded the pick--we would have taken D

so the three players you need to whine about not having are

Thomas Chabot
Noah Juulsen
Jacob Larsson

Not Barzel

 

[lakai17]

if we do not take Barzal--we would have taken a D and that is what the talking heads said walking into the draft and after the draft--the names that they mention are Chabot, Juulson and Larsson(Jacob)--Oilers were going D--we were never going to take Barzel--the logic behind the trade was the oilers thought they were getting an NHL ready D man and not one they would need to wait 2 to 4 years to get to the NHL..

We need to move beyond that "we could have had Barzel" but we had Nuge, Leon D and McDavid down the middle when it came our time to draft 16th overall..

We needed D and if we had not traded the pick--we would have taken D

so the three players you need to whine about not having are

Thomas Chabot
Noah Juulsen
Jacob Larsson

Not Barzel

Keep in mind, most logical gm's will select the best player available due to being a valuable asset or a valuable trade chip if needed. People who pay attention to the whl and other junior teams knew Barzal slipped in that draft.

Chabot is a stellar D himself.

This is a thread about a drawing point.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Keep in mind, most logical gm's will select the best player available due to being a valuable asset or a valuable trade chip if needed. People who pay attention to the whl and other junior teams knew Barzal slipped in that draft.

Chabot is a stellar D himself.

This is a thread about a drawing point.

you do realize I created this thread right?

and in drafts beyond a certain point--you look at your depth chart and needs beyond the BPA-

 

[LaGu]

- I thought it was stupid not to have fired McLellan this summer and bring in a new head coach who could have then chosen his own assistants.
But I honestly don't think that I called for Chia to be fired because of it (my memory could be off though), most probably because I did like the assistants being brought in.

- Manning.
Petrovic I could stomach, Manning ... That was just a completely mindless move, to this day I don't see any purpose what-so-ever with that move and the cherry on top is of course Manning's history vs Oilers. That was honestly the definite breaking point for me and based on it I need to re-evaluate some of the earlier moves as well... Because often times excuses/explanations are/were given for some moves, and I often gave him the benefit of a doubt, but if this was the same mind that came to the conclusion that Manning for Caggiula would be a good trade for this team (and I didn't even like Caggiula), then I think that the benefit I gave him was probably wasted.

 

[thadd]

The minute I realized we had spent so much assets over the past few seasons to only end up missing the playoffs. The minute I realized we were out of the playoffs last season I was done with PC.
When he traded Strome for Spooner I got scared.
When he traded for Manning and Petrovic I was beyond pissed off that he still had a job.
When I saw Kos' cap hit I almost crapped myself.

 

[MessierII]

That Reinhart trade. When Barzal is left on the draft board at #16 you draft him nevermind team needs. That 2nd rounder was high as well.

McDavid + Barzal would have been wonders.

I still wouldn’t draft Barzal even with hindsight. Boeser or Chabot please.

 

[Fishy McScales]

Manning trade was as inexplicably tone deaf as it was strategically dumbfounding.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt with the Hall trade (and to be fair Larsson may still deliver a payoff as d-men often bloom later in their careers), but it was clearly an overpay that showed he'd learned nothing from the Seguin fiasco.

Actually I think those trades feel like him trying to show that he has courage as a GM to compensate for how much of a doormat he seems to be in negotiations. Some sort of outward projection of not knowing fear when in reality he is a pretty shy guy with an inferiority complex.

 

[Zaddy]

Not sure about breaking point but the Eberle for Strome trade was where I started to really sour on him. That summer as a whole was just very poorly handled by him and ever since then it has just gone downhill and Chia wasn't able to do a single positive move to help this team since then. In fact he continued to downgrade the roster while adding salary. Very impressive.

 

[JetsOilersfan]

Lot of good info here but from what I'm reading a lot of us are in the same boat. I'll go a through what happened at the time with the caveat of no hindsight

1. Hall trade for Larsson - Hall was rooming with McDavid and was a cancer. He was ignoring coaches (I knew this before an interview in his MVP season where he admitted this) and was refusing to play in the system. He was NOT a team player - to use Hitchcock's analogy, he was playing this his team, not 'for' his team. His last year here, when McDavid went down ( more on that later lol) he soared up to 4th in NHL scoring around Christmas time. However, by January we were pretty much out of it and wouldn't you know it, Hall went from fourth down to the mid twenties. I wanted a draft pick (2nd rounder to compensate for the 2nd round pick lost when hiring Chiarelli) in addition to Larsson but I was ok with the trade and that was the 'general' concensus here - addition by subraction. The subsequent signing of Lucic to protect McDavid (now many games has McDavid missed due to injury since we signed McDavid have we missed?) was also part of that deal. Now, in hindsight, yes - it was a terrible deal - both of them (Lucic and trade) but at the time, it wasn't

2. Griffin Reinhart trade - first off - that wasn't Chiarelli. And that my friends is what is still scaring the crap out of me. That was Bob Green and probably MacT and Howson chiming in, AFTER PC tried and failed to acquire Douggie Hamilton. To refresh your memories, the reported asking price from Boston was our 1st and 2nd round picks + Darnell Nurse for Hamilton. How would you all have felt if THAT trade was made? As well, for the picks in question, jumptheshark is 100% correct. I know for a fact that Barzal was not being considered and for those of you who state 'best player available' well no, not only are you wrong, you wouldn't have drafted him either. It's so easy to sit at your keyboard and type that. But bottom line is this - you had Draisaitl and RNH, and you just drafted a generational player in McDavid. Barzal would never, ever, have gotten the ice time to 'show case' his talent for potential 'trade bait' first of all. Secondly, with those three centers already in the fold a defenseman would have been top priority and was. Who it was, I'm not sure. If it wasn't a dman, we were taking Svechnikov who was taken by Detroit and still hasn't made it in the NHL (not talking about his younger brother playing in Carolina). For our second round pick, the guy they had wanted was the RHD Brandon DeCarlo. I know that too. So anyway Green and whoever else convinced PC that Reinhart was ready now and fit the bill of 'big and heavy' and was the captain of a Memorial Cup winning team so he listened to his advisors and made the deal. I personally hated the deal as I never liked Reinhart - none of them- but at the time I understood the reasoning why they made the trade. It turned out later no one had actually watched Reinhart play in over a year. So to me, the blame on PC is not the trade, it's the fact he didn't fire the clowns that told him to trade for him. THAT was PC's mistake. But tell me, was he allowed to? That's what scares me

3. Eberle for Strome trade - loved it - still do. Eberle was complete garbage in the playoffs. Utterly useless. We all hated him. And he's making 6M a year. AND we need room to replace Sekera. AND Strome is / could be someone that just needed a change of scenery and he was also a player who could play center and RW. So we not only got a more versatile player, but someone that saved us 3.5M and still had potential. That wasn't the issue. The issue was what happened after the trade. NOTHING - we just saved 3.5M in cap space - more than enough to bring in even a rental for 1 year to fill in for Sekera, and nothing. However we do not know what happened behind closed doors. To this day I give PC the benefit of the doubt that he was trying behind the scenes to make a move but either the asking price was too high or the contract was (remember Sek is coming back and so is his cap hit) so though in hindsight it was a bad trade I was ok with the move. Thought it was smart at the time.

So when did I sour on him, this off season. After three years, his 'plan' clearly wasn't working. But that's ok guys - we are in a constant change of flux. As people, we have to change too. Those that can adapt and change I have no issue with. I was hoping in his end of year address he'd come out and say "yep, looks like 'big' and 'heavy' on it's own can't get it done and we need to go in a different direction". But he didn't so that was when it turned for me. I won't rehash what happened after that as it's all here and I agree with all of it but will add one thing:

Clearly, PC was in desperation mode. The moves he made were literally that of a drowning man grabbing on to anything to save himself, not caring about the welfare of others (in this case the well being of the Edmonton Oilers and the players on that team). But I put to you all here - WHO allowed this to happen? WHO allowed the Koskinen signing - if what Bobby Nicks says is true PC didn't sign him on his own, it was a concensus signing. I also heard it was Keith Gretzky, not PC, that worked on the Petrovic and Manning trades. PC just signed off on it. Not saying that's true, as it was reported on Gregor's show I believe, but IMO it makes sense as why would you do both deals so close together? My guess was it was one or the other and both deals were done in separate transactions at the same time. But that Manning trade didn't sour me on PC, I already was, it soured me on the organisation as a whole. How do you bring in a guy who broke your star players collar bone even if he was playing well. NVM the fact he was a healthy scratch on a weak blueline for a team a lot worse (?) than yours!

So now we got a politician with zero foresight asking anyone and everyone "what's wrong with our team, what's wrong with our water, who should I hire as GM" running the show. And everyone is happy PC is gone lol??? Hey, I am too don't get me wrong, but dont' kid yourselves. This is way deeper than PC. Whenever something goes off the rails like this, it starts from the top. Unfortunately, the guy at the top is the one hiring the next GM - so I'm not very enthusiastic about our future. Let me put it another way, if Glenn Sather were in BN's spot, would he be calling Darryl Sutter at his farm looking for an opinion on HIS team? I don't know but if I was betting on it I'd say no way Slats would have his own plan and know the type of person he wanted to hire. That's how I see it anyway. Sorry for the long rant - thanks for reading if you made it this far

 

[Joey Moss]

I didn't like the Reinhart trade at all when it happened but was optimistic about Reinhart being a top 4 defenseman. I thought it was an overpay from the beginning and wanted the Oilers to take Barzal. I really questioned the Hall trade when it happened for the same reason. I thought it was a clear overpay, we didn't get the value back but I thought Larsson could really help us and was optimistic about the Klefbom-Larsson pairing. I also thought Puljujarvi would be a beast and help ease the loss of Hall. The Eberle trade for me was probably breaking point where I stopped defending Chiarelli. He made the deal because he was worried about a Draisaitl offer sheet. We could have had Eberle last season and it wasn't enough value again. It just got worse and worse as he became desperate and here we are now. Stuck with these god awful contracts, struggling prospects, and limited assets from losing every trade.

Looking back on things, his worst deal was the first one he made. MacTavish did a hell of a job setting us up in that 2015 draft from the Perron deal and Chia bombed it.

 

[lakai17]

you do realize I created this thread right?

and in drafts beyond a certain point--you look at your depth chart and needs beyond the BPA-

They could have acquired a better return we both can agree on in that case jts, it was the 16th overall + an early 2nd rounder. A lot of us locals or in western Canada did get to witness Reinhart, he was no savior.

Then we can bring up letting Brossoit go as we stole him from Calgary to begin with. Many of us locals had the opportunity to watch him play and he was decent with the Oil kings and had no support in his stint with the Oilers. He would have been cheap to re ink.

 

[BlackDogg]

If the Manning and Petrovic signings were not Chia, then we are in fact royally f***ed and there is no hope for a long time.

 

[FunkyChicken]

When he traded Hall and had a shocked-confused expression when the media dared to doubt that he got adequate concern.

 

[MikeGrier99]

For me it was the summer after the playoff run. It was clear Brossoit was too inexperienced to be relied upon as a back up and should've been getting big minutes in the minors. I knew it was way too big a risk for a team with aspirations. The McDavid and Draisaitl contracts could've probably been a bit smaller and made for a more even cap structure. Eberle trade didn't make any sense, especially with the unused capspace. Failure to address Sekera injury and go with super thin d. Absolutely brutal summer that was nothing but a complete regression.

Before that point I was still disappointed but after that point it was clear to me that his project was going to fail and damage the club's future.