Traik-eotomy
Just-fired Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli wasted years of Connor McDavid’s talent by not having him on a competitive team ... After a bad year last season, Edmonton basically stood pat with a roster everyone knew wasn’t good enough ... Penguins GM Rutherford k
Peter Chiarelli is gone. But his legacy in Edmonton will linger on.
That legacy includes trading Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson, swapping out Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome, who was then sent packing for Ryan Spooner, as well as signing Milan Lucic to a seven-year deal worth $42 million.
But, as my friend Ryan
Kennedy with The Hockey News recently joked, Chiarelli’s biggest contribution might be that we’re now forced to re-define the Hart Trophy.
The award used to be so simple. The league MVP was the player who had the best individual season.
Not anymore.
Now, we’re parsing words and asking ourselves if “most valuable to his team” means that the team has to be in the playoff spot.
Connor McDavid, who won the Hart in 2016-17 after scoring 100 points, wasn’t even a finalist last year despite leading the league with 108 points — six more than the next-best player — because the Oilers finished in 12th place in the West. Expect that trend to continue this year.
As of Wednesday morning, McDavid was tied for second with 73 points in 49 games — a 122-point pace. But he wasn’t amongst my top three in mid-season voting, which had Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau ranked No. 1, followed by Tampa Bay’s Nikita
Kucherov and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.
How could he be? The Oilers, who have lost 12 of their last 17 games, are heading into the all-star game as the fourth-worst team in the Western Conference.
That’s obviously not McDavid’s fault. But it’s not a good look, just the same.
When Ray Shero was the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he used to say that having a once-in-a-generation player such as Sidney Crosby on the roster was more than a gift — it was a responsibility.
In Crosby, he had a future Hall of Famer’s career in his hands. The last thing he wanted to do was potentially damage Crosby’s reputation by wasting away his years on a non-competitive team.
That’s essentially what Chiarelli has done to McDavid.
He should be on his way to winning a third straight Hart Trophy. He should have had a chance at winning the Stanley Cup, as well as the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Instead, for the third time in four years, he’s eyeing another season where he won’t even be in the playoffs.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
The most disappointing thing about the way Edmonton’s season has gone is that we saw this coming — from a mile away. This isn’t playing Monday morning quarterback. The Oilers finished last season with one less win than the 11th-place Flames. But while Calgary replaced its coach in the off-season and retooled its roster by acquiring Elias
Lindholm and Noah Hanifin in trades, Edmonton mostly stood pat with a roster everyone knew wasn’t good enough … If the Oilers
were thinking about firing Chiarelli, why on earth did ownership allow him to give
Mikko Koskinen a threeyear extension with a $4.5 million cap hit? The backup-turned-starter is 30 years old and has played a grand total of 32 games in the NHL. This has disaster written all over it … Forget about Auston
Matthews edging out McDavid as the highest-paid player in the NHL. If Elias
Pettersson manages to get the Canucks into the playoffs, the talented rookie deserves all the money in the world, whenever his entry-level contract expires … It’s not just McDavid who’s wasting another solid season in Edmonton. With 27 goals and 61 points, Leon
Draisaitl is amongst the top 10 in scoring for the second time in three years … Think the Bruins are a potential first-round nightmare for the Leafs? Consider that if the season were to end today, Tampa Bay would have to play Pittsburgh … Worst part about Edmonton missing the playoffs is how easy it is to make this year. Colorado, which is the second wildcard team, is just three games above .500 and on pace for 87 points. Last year, the Avalanche won the final spot with 95 points and were 13 games above .500.
HERE’S ONE FOR YOU
When Jim Rutherford was the Hurricanes GM, he debated between Lindholm and Sean Monahan in the 2013 draft. He ultimately chose Lindholm, who is having a career year next to Monahan, who went one spot later, in Calgary. “I really felt that there was more there than the results were in Carolina,” Rutherford told me this week.
“He’s a 200-foot player that does everything right. Now he’s getting a chance to show it” … Alex Ovechkin scored a hat trick against San Jose on Tuesday. But he ultimately cost his team the win when he attempted to score a fourth goal on an empty net — rather than eat the puck until the buzzer — and then stopped skating as the Sharks went the other way and tied the game. That’s the kind of selfish play ex-Capitals head coach Barry Trotz didn’t stand for last season … If I’m the Oilers, I’d hire Dave Nonis to clean up Chiarelli’s mess. After all, if Nonis was able to trick the Blue Jackets into taking on David Clarkson’s contract, then surely he can find a landing spot for
Lucic … The Matthews versus Patrik Laine debate has taken an ugly turn. While Matthews headed into Wednesday’s game with one goal in his previous 13 games, Laine had scored just twice in his past 16 games … During my talk with Lou Lamoriello earlier this week, the Islanders GM said he was impressed by the level of buy-in from the players, saying “usually you have one or two that find a way to become a renegade.” Presumably, this means everybody is showing up to work with a clean-shaven face.