Imagine If Peter Chiarelli Didn’t Touch the Edmonton Oilers Roster?

This article would take a look at what the Edmonton Oilers roster (and suggested lines) would look like if Peter Chiarelli made zero moves. The top six looks very stacked.

Edmonton Oilers: Hello, Oil on Whyte readers! My name is Jeff, and I am happy to be a new contributor to the Oil on Whyte site. I have been a die hard Oilers fan since I was a very little kid and I am passionate about the world of sports media and writing, in particular hockey. This article is about good ol’ Peter Chiarelli, and what could have been.

The Edmonton Oilers hired Peter Chiarelli on April 24th, 2015. He won a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins, however, made an infamous trade when he dealt Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars for Loui Eriksson and three prospects. Seguin has haunted the Bruins ever since.

Now, the premise of this article is to show the readers what the Oilers would be like if Chiarelli did not touch the Oilers roster since he was hired. However, some of what will be written may not have happened. You never really know how players will work out in different environments or what will happen. But it is entertaining to see, anyways.

Peter Chiarelli has done an incredibly poor job of managing this team, and the worst aspect of his management is how he has downgraded skill. The Oilers always seem to be backward compared to the top teams in the league. When the Oilers were small and (relatively) skilled in the Pre-Chiarelli era, the league was big, mean, and physical.

However, after the L.A. Kings won their second cup in 4 years in 2014, the league began to change. The league is now mostly young, fast, and skilled. Chiarelli could not foresee this change, and tried (and seems to be still working evidently), to make the Oilers robust, mean, and slow.

In my opinion, the Oilers would be better off right now if Chiarelli did not touch this team since he was hired. The Oilers likely would have taken Mcdavid either way, so there is no question there. I am going to build how I would see the Oilers lines if Chiarelli left the team how it was.

I am going to use Mat Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier in these lines. There is no guarantee that the Oilers would have drafted these players 16th and 33rd overall in 2015, or that they would have panned out, but it is fun to see.

Oilers Lines if Chiarelli did not touch the team:

RNH-Mcdavid-Eberle

Hall-Drai-Bouvillier

Pouliot-Barzal-Kassian

Khaira-Letestu-Hendricks

Klefbom-Nurse

Davidson-Schultz

Oesterle-Gryba

Brossoit

There are some definite weaknesses here, but overall, this team is much better. The skill is ridiculous in the top six, and in my opinion would be near tops in the league. The goaltending and defense is a weakness, but hopefully, this would be better if we had a better GM. There are some players that the Oilers drafted with Chiarelli (Yamamoto, Puljujarvi), and signed (Koskinen, Benning), that would be on this roster.

Also, trades that Chiarelli made (Talbot, Spooner, etc.) are not included. Chiarelli has made some brutal trades (Hall for Larsson, Eberle for Strome, Reinhart trade, etc.). We also all know about the poor signings Chiarelli has made (Lucic). He has made some excellent deals (Talbot, Maroon), but the bad outweighs the good in my opinion.

He has downgraded skill in a skill league, and the Oilers are in a terrible spot (long term) because of this. I have rounded out the roster with some bottom six players such as Kassian and Letestu. These players were brought in by Chiarelli and his team, but are not complete impact players, so I decided to keep them in.

The Edmonton Oilers are in a bad situation right now, and I hope they still make the playoffs. However, even if they do squeak into the playoffs in a wildcard spot, I think Chiarelli still needs to go. Thanks for reading!