For all intents and purposes, the Edmonton Oilers have been a team run by under qualified GM’s since Kevin Lowe stepped into the President’s office in the summer of 2008.
Steve Tambellini stepped in during that fateful summer of 2008 to take over the chair from Lowe. Tambi was learning on the job, and for five years he seemingly never learned how to quickly react or how to add NHL level talent to his young roster.
After that terrible stretch, Craig MacTavish took a two year shot at the job. Like Tambellini before him, he was learning on the job, and as a result made fatal mistakes that led to his firing from the position back in April.
After seven years of wandering the desert, the Oilers have ventured into a territory they’ve never been, they hired an experienced GM to run the show. After eight solid and successful years running the Boston Bruins, Peter Chiarelli took the reigns in Edmonton on a warm April day.
So….Who Is He?:
Well, he’s the most qualified front office hire in Edmonton Oilers history. We know how good of a GM Glen Sather became, but at the time he took over the Oilers he was nothing more than a former player and a coach making a jump into another area of hockey.
Kevin Lowe was the same thing, as was Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish after him.
Chiarelli worked in the Ottawa Senators organization from 1999 until May of 2006, he spent the final two years of his tenure in Ottawa as the assistant GM to Bryan Murray, the man still in charge to this day.
In 2006, Chiarelli left Ottawa and took his talents to Boston, snagging his first ever GM job. Chiarelli would take the Bruins from a bottom feeder all the way to the top, winning the Stanley Cup in 2011.
Chiarelli’s team would advance to the Final again in 2013, falling to the Blackhawks in six games. In his eight years at the helm, the Bruins made the NHL’s postseason a solid six times. The won series in five of those appearances.
Chiarelli also had his hand in a number of massive moves for the Bruins. His management team brought Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard and Tuukka Rask to Boston in various moves during the summer of 2006.
Chia was also responsible for trading for or signing many valuable pieces to the 2011 Cup team, including Mark Recchi, Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid, Nathan Horton, Greg Campbell, Dennis Seidenberg, Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder, Rich Peverley and Andrew Ference.
Chiarelli also snagged players like Aaron Ward, Chuck Kobasew and Jaromir Jagr, who helped the Bruins significantly during their tenures in Boston.
His biggest two trades? Likely Phil Kessel to Toronto and Tyler Seguin to Dallas. With hindsight in mind, we can grade the Kessel deal as a massive win and the Seguin deal as a massive loss for Chiarelli. That said, I’d like to mention that factors other than on-ice performance played into both decisions.
His First Go Around:
Oilers fans should be very happy with what Peter Chiarelli has done in his first summer at the helm. Edmonton has an established veteran coach in Todd McLellan now, a guy to stop the bleeding behind the bench and a guy with a sparkling resume.
The Oilers also added a top-pairing defensive option in Andrej Sekera, a terrific bet in net in the form of Cam Talbot, a solid bottom-six forward in Mark Letestu and a potential top-four defensive solution down the road in Griffin Reinhart.
Let’s not forget the addition of solid depth defender Eric Gryba and the stroke of luck that saw Connor McDavid come to town.
If this is any indication, then the Oilers are in great hands with Chiarelli running the show. Having seen him first hand here in Boston, I can tell you that this summer resembles the summer of 2006 for the Bruins in a very big way.
Is He The Long Term Answer?:
I can’t say for sure at this time. Why? No matter how good things look, not everything works out the way it was suppose to. I thought Craig MacTavish would set the ship right, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
That being said, Peter Chiarelli’s track record as a GM in the NHL is very strong. He’s built a winner before, and he’s been part of the rise for two very strong organizations in Boston and Ottawa. He knows how to implement a plan and execute it.
His first summer was very strong. As it stands right now, the Oilers are a better team than they were in April, and I’m comfortable with saying they are better in a significant way.
After seven years of wandering around and learning on the job, the Oilers have a proven GM who knows how to make things click and who isn’t afraid to make moves when the need arises.
Peter Chiarelli, in my mind, should be the long term solution to Edmonton’s management woes.
Just who is Peter Chiarelli? He’s the guy who played a part in building two very strong teams and who has already begun to set Edmonton up for a turn north. He’s the hero this organization has needed since the dismantling of the Oilers began in July 2006.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
