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The Edmonton Oilers finally made the right front office move Friday when they hired former Boston Bruins executive Peter Chiarelli to be President of Hockey Operations and GM. The question is, did this move come too late?
There are some who might think that, but there are reasons to believe that he is coming right on time. He comes at a time when the Oilers need to hire a coach, and this could be the strongest coaching free agency in the history of the league. The team still has Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to build around. They now have the first overall pick, which they really need to use to pick Conor McDavid. They have players who have a chance to be good, like Justin Schultz and Ben Scrivens (I haven’t given up based on one season).
The problem is, they still aren’t a desirable destination for a free agent. There are talks that Mike Babcock could be looking to coach McDavid, but Edmonton doesn’t seem like the likely destination for him. It just doesn’t seem likely that they will be able to get enough veterans to be good right away. They will have really good young players, but they won’t have those players who can pick the team up when things are going wrong.
There are players like Willie Mitchell, who decided to sign with the Florida Panthers last season. He is the kind of player with a winning mindset that teams need.
Where Chiarelli has to start is on the blue line. The Oilers allowed the most goals in the league last season. They thought the combination of Scrivens and Viktor Fasth would help that, but it didn’t. Scrivens was statistically the worst goalie in hockey. This comes off a season in which he helped carry the Los Angeles Kings in the absence of Jonathan Quick. There is no way he could fall off that badly in less than a season without a good reason. They just don’t have the right players on defense. With the addition of McDavid, they can use this offseason to focus on fixing the blue line. The addition of Mark Fayne last season was a step in the right direction, but there is more to be done.
There is still the weird situation with Craig MacTavish. He was taken down from the GM spot and moved to a position to be named later. That doesn’t sound too good, but for the love of the Oilers hopefully that position has no say in personnel decisions.
Point is, the outlook of the Oilers is much brighter than it was just two days ago. There is more hope now that the front office is set for the future. McDavid is coming as well. Maybe this time they can figure it out.
Nick Villano is the New Jersey Devils writer for Rant Sports. He also adds to the site’s NBA, MLB and NFL content. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your Google circle.
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