“And uh we might see a puff of smoke coming out of Rogers Place tomorrow, wait and see on that front”
That was the quote with 27 sec remaining on yesterday’s episode of Oilers Now from host Bob Stauffer.
If it was used on purpose (which is probably the case), the puff of smoke traditionally refers to the fact that the Cardinals have gathered together and selected a new pope. Stauffer could be telling us:
- The entirety of the management team has gathered, and/or
- Changes are a comin’
BUT I find it very interesting that Stauffer started his show off yesterday with this quote,
“Peter Chiarelli, the Oilers GM, I would assume, would speak sometime later this week maybe as early as tomorrow. I guess there’s an outside chance later today but my guess is tomorrow.”
Not to analyze what Stauffer has said here too much but to me that doesn’t sound like the Oilers are going to be announcing the “firing” of Peter Chiarelli per se.
The other thing to add here is that in the first quote he was chuckling a bit because of an earlier comment and I’m not sure that that sort of news would be something to take lightly. Not only that but he waited until the last possible moment to mention it…
In contrast, I woke up to a message from one of my sources and they said that the Oilers brass will probably give Todd McLellan one more year but his assistants are gone and that the men above are super pissed with the job Chiarelli has done and there’s a good chance he won’t be doing the presser.
As for Todd McLellan’s coaching staff, Jason Gregor and Ryan Rishaug said the assistants are only on 3-year contracts, so those that have been here since the start of the Chiarelli regime would simply be let go instead of fired… They discussed that on Gregor’s show yesterday in the final segment.
I got to talking to some of my closer friends online and an interesting idea that was tossed out there was what if the Oilers are announcing a promotion? Meaning Chiarelli wouldn’t be fired, he would simply be kicked upstairs to focus on the President of Hockey Operations job and perhaps Keith Gretzky would get promoted to GM.
Thoughts?
My feeling is that Bob Stauffer has been talking about assistant coaches since last week with his guests and tomorrow he’ll have a former Oilers assistant coach on his show in Craig Simpson. Simply a coincidence I know but great timing IF the Oilers do let go of a coach or two or four.
*Side note: might we see a Manny Viveiros hiring this summer by the Oilers? Either to coach with McLellan and do something with the special teams OR to head coach the AHL club?*
I reckon Bob Nicholson doesn’t want to tear things down completely and start again and is willing to give this crew some more time to see if this past season was a mirage.
From what I’ve been told previously, Nicholson isn’t happy with Chiarelli and bumping him up out of the GM’s seat and giving the roster construction job to the minority owner’s brother whilst not having to pay Chiarelli out by firing him sounds like a pretty good way of not rocking the boat too much there. Also, they can let Chiarelli run his contract out and then address that role when the time comes in two years.
It’s such an Oilers thing to do, right? I mean how many rungs are there on the ladder in that organization? But IF that does happen the critics will still be out there saying that if Chiarelli still has a hand in this, the team is doomed. I really like the idea though. There’s no major upheaval in the coaching and management team and it still gives this regime a chance to turn things around.
It was said to me and I do believe this, perhaps this season was the best thing that could happen to the team. I mean if Chiarelli relinquishes his GM duties to Keith Gretzky perhaps both men will thrive in their new positions. Gretzky has a pretty good record at the draft table since becoming head scout in Boston to his new role in Edmonton. The team learning first-hand how hard it is to get to the playoffs and stay in that race is another lesson that comes to mind. Not reading the press clippings is another thing that could be learned from.
We learn a lot more from losing than winning but the trick is to apply that knowledge right? Previous regimes in Edmonton didn’t do that. They simply kept on making the same mistakes whereas this regime has seen improvement. Marginally albeit but nevertheless, improvement. And with a young-cored team, the highs will be high and the lows will be low. That’s about the only expectation we should have until the team manages to mature a bit more.
As for Todd McLellan, I have no idea. I guess during his media avail he said he’d already done some exit interviews with the big players but then Jim Matheson said in a post yesterday that he was doing them by phone this year? And him thanking the media the way he did suggested to me that perhaps he wasn’t even sure if he’ll be back next season…
The bottom line here is that the team has to get better and it doesn’t have a lot of resources to do so. The pipeline is JUST starting to get better after years of shite drafting and dealing away young prospects. Plus there isn’t much money to add a significant talent to the team without dealing away a contract first.
*Side note: Bob Stauffer also said on his show that Andrej Sekera is a player we should keep an eye on (I’m paraphrasing) going forward*
To sum it all up, here’s my prediction, Chiarelli gives up his GM role, gives it to Keith Gretzky, and announces the assistant coaches won’t be re-signed. A slight possibility that a more formal decision on Paul Coffey is announced as well.
So we wait to see what color the smoke will be, white or dark?
