Edmonton Oilers: Peter Chiarelli’s NHL Career is Over

The Moves Really Were That Bad

It’s hard to think of any General Manager that has made any moves in the last four years nearly as cataphoric to the success of their franchise’s success as the moves made by Chiarelli… let alone multiple of them. Shea Weber for P.K Subban will probably turn out to be a close second to the Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson trade regarding future success. But what other team has recently moved a piece that big and lost that badly?

Any manager as seasoned as Chiarelli at the NHL position should have been well aware that 2015 was not the year to move a first-round draft pick. It’s pretty safe to say that the draft class following Mcdavid will go down as the deepest first round since the infamous draft of 2003.

But instead of snatching up one of the plentiful top prospects in Mathew Barzal, Thomas Chabot, Kyle Connor… oh and Brock Boeser (just to name a few) available with the 16th pick; Chiarelli decided to package that pick with the 33rd overall pick to the New York Islanders in exchange for Griffin Reinhart. A defencemen who was struggling to make a permanent jump up from the AHL and had well-known footspeed issues.

I should also mention that Brandon Carlo was available with the 33rd pick that year, who was drafted by Boston at 37th and played in their top 4 the following season and is still providing solid minutes.

If the Bruins selected Carlo, there is no way that Chiarelli didn’t have a multitude of conversations with his scouts when still in Boston about that player– Considering the Bruins let him go just months before the draft.

Maybe he didn’t think Carlo would slide to the second round? But pick 33 was not far out of Carlo’s range and there were still plenty of other talented players available in the second round of 2015.