Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli scheduled a press conference today where he took questions from several media members, and the overriding theme of the day was that the team would not “blow it up.” Chiarelli is not looking to dump players for draft picks just to start the development process again, but instead make tweaks to the roster to try and get back to the level of success found in 2016-17. The team is prioritizing speed in any acquisitions they make, and admitted that they had looked at a couple “hockey deals” recently.
Chiarelli also said that there had been interest in both Patrick Maroon and Mark Letestu, though wouldn’t go into specifics on either player. He also said they’d looked into extensions with some of their pending free agents.
The Oilers have struggled through a very disappointing season, but aren’t going to push the eject button just yet on this group. Though there is work to be done, a Connor McDavid-led team could jump right to the top of the league next season with some adjustments, just as it did a year ago. Chiarelli says he’s not involved in some bigger things going on around the league, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Edmonton is one of the quietest teams at the deadline, outside of perhaps selling off a few rentals. Any big changes are more likely to happen in the summer.
He was given the GM job when McDavid became reality. He’s been terrible otherwise. They’d be 31st in the league without that gimme pick.
How about some defense in Edmonton for a change? Maybe make a deal more than Hall (64pts in 56gms) for Larsson.
Terrible management there.