Oilers Looking For a New General Manager AND Head Coach?

What a loss that was for the Oilers eh? That loss reminded me of a time when jerseys were being tossed on the ice and bag-wearing fans were-a-raging! I seen some positives in that game but not enough. The team looks very uninspired and I don’t expect players like Drake Caggiula, Pat Maroon, or even Zack Kassian to survive the possible upcoming purge.

Disclaimer: As I say nearly every time I post something I’ve been passed along, you do not have to believe me. Everyone claims to know somebody connected to a professional hockey team in Canada. I just happen to as well. I can’t tell you who the sources are (of course) but I trust them and I’m not afraid to tell you because it’s no skin off of my back. Apart from all of that, it’s good entertainment and excellent water cooler talk. I’m not McKenzie, Dreger, Friedman, or LeBrun nor do I want to be. I just like sharing what I’ve been told. 

So immediately after the game, I was given this text from one of my sources within the club,

“The Oilers brass is going to be having talks with both Darryl Sutter and Dave Tippett.”

WHOA!

I mean, the players have looked very uninspired but is firing the coach the answer. McLellan throws himself under the bus every night the Oilers lose but is he doing it too much? I would have no problem if he flat out said his players played like shit and need to get their games together or someone is going to sit. Nobody gets sat in the press box anymore and that used to be how you sent a message to a player that wasn’t “getting it”.

I’ve talked about Darryl Sutter in the past and Dave Tippett in Twitter conversations and IF the Oilers were to let McLellan and his staff go, I wouldn’t have any problems with either of these men being hired but one does have to ask if Sutter is past his best-before date.

What do you think? Personally I’d like to toss Todd Nelson’s name out there.

A few minutes later I was sent this message,

“Peter Chiarelli is also on the hot seat”.

Hmmm, big if true. I mean is the Oilers’ brass bowing to the pressure of a rabid Oilers fanbase right now?

The Oilers went from a 70pt team to a team that amassed over 100pts last season. Both Todd McLellan and Peter Chiarelli were up for major awards and 21 games into the next season and they’re both being reviewed now?

I still wonder how you can blame Chiarelli for players who are slumping like Klefbom and Talbot. Does Chiarelli get equal praise for the resurgence of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the emergence of Darnell Nurse? It’s BS that he’s getting piled on like this for things that are out of his control. Do you really think that having Eberle and Pouliot on the team would prevent other players from slumping? Come on, use your head.

Now, THAT being said, Peter Chiarelli did have a reputation of not being afraid to move young players before he was hired in Edmonton and we know what he’s done so far because there were others who couldn’t or wouldn’t move any of the young players in an attempt to kick-start the team. As soon as Chiarelli moves one, the teams luck changes. Weird.

Chiarelli has built this team to compete in the Pacific and to date, the Oilers have played Pacific division teams a grand total of THREE TIMES!!! Going forward every game vs. the Pacific teams is a 4pt game. The bad news is they will only play Pacific division teams 3 times between now and January 2nd…

On an individual basis, it’s my belief that the men in charge are unhappy with the underperforming Matt Benning, Drake Caggiula, and the newly acquired Ryan Strome.

My retort to that is that Benning/Caggiula are suffering from a sophomore slump and Ryan Strome has been stapled to the 3rd line since the second game of the preseason. What kind of expectations did they have for him if they were going to play him there, I mean he’s got 8pts from there and I’d say that’s pretty decent considering the Oilers record.

I do have to wonder if Darryl Katz would ok these moves as Chiarelli and McLellan are on some serious tickets and if I’m not mistaken they’ve got 2 years left on their contracts and both are over $4M per year…

What are your thoughts? Should the GM get another trade? Should he axe McLellan and try to spark something? Or should Bob Nicholson step in and go scorched Earth? Let us know in the comments below!