Done With Strome?

The Ryan Strome era in Edmonton may not even last to American Thanksgiving. Who saw that coming?

As it came out on Saturday night on the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, Nick Kypreos said that Peter Chiarelli is looking already at trading Ryan Strome, the man acquired for Jordan Eberle, less than 15 games into the season. I don’t think we need further proof that from the jump this was a bad trade for the Oilers and another one that Chiarelli clearly lost.

Eberle’s first NHL postseason this past spring wasn’t the greatest, but in the 2016-17 regular season he had a 51 point year and finished 3rd in team scoring last season sitting only behind Leon Draisaitl and eventual Hart Trophy winner Connor McDavid. Strome has failed to record a season of over 30 points since his sophomore year in 2014-15, when he hit 50 right on the nose. Last year, in 69 games, he put up only 30 points.

Currently #18 has just three points in ten games for Edmonton while Eberle has nine points in eleven games. On a team that is lacking scoring down the right wing, he was a player that shouldn’t have even been in consideration for a trade unless you could have walked away with a player of equal or better value.

Strome probably did need a change of scenery to restart his career but for a GM to deal away an asset such as Jordan Eberle for Strome and want to abort the whole situation when the new paint hasn’t even fully dried on the ice of Rogers Place shows even more what a bad idea this was even as a suggestion, much less an acquisition that actually happened.

To his credit Strome, from the jump, was excited to come to Edmonton and is battling to try and produce. The output right now just isn’t coming which is not shocking at all but still disappointing. Personally, I would give him a little more time to try and figure things out in his new franchise as ten games on a new club is too small a sample size to say “THAT’S IT. GET HIM OUTTA HERE”.

The good faith that Chiarelli built up from year one of his tenure as GM now is fading fast among the fanbase and with this team currently sitting in 7th place in the Pacific with a mark of 3-6-1. Only the winless Arizona Coyotes sit behind the Oilers in the Western Conference.

We don’t know exactly how much more time Ryan Strome has in YEG, but I can’t see how the Oilers are the team of power in any trade right now involving him. A near last place team looking to deal away a forward with a career average of under 50 points per season and a career high of 17 goals? I don’t see a pressing need for him on any of the other 30 franchises’ rosters.

Add to the fact that this team just lost 5-2 to Washington in a game in which they gave up five unanswered goals and the summer and month of October have not been kind to the Oilers.

The front office has egg on its face right now and it may not be easy to clean this yolk off with the glow of its first playoff run in a decade starting to dim.