Peter Chiarelli's worst trade blunders

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Joshua Deeds
September 2, 2023 (10:10 PM)

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In addition to signing Milan Lucic to a long-term contract, Peter Chiarelli also made a lot of bad trades and signings for the Edmonton Oilers.

His tenure in Edmonton was characterized by the inability to find top-tier talent, numerous overpayments on certain contracts, and the lack of quality goal-tending.

The fact that he drafted Connor McDavid at the top of the draft and signed Leon Draisaitl to a long-term contract when Draisaitl was there before his arrival, smacks of unearned praise.

When Chiarelli traded for Griffin Reinhart as GM for the Edmonton Oilers, it was one of his worst deals. A 1st and 2nd rounder was acquired in 2015 for Reinhart, one of which became star winger Matthew Barzal of the New York Islanders.

During his time in Edmonton, Reinhart struggled and would soon find himself in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors, before making stops with the Chicago Wolves and Kunlun Red Star.

In total, Barzal has played 420 NHL games, scored 105 goals, and posted 257 assists for 362 points, all with the New York Islanders since 2015.

He made a similar mistake again by trading top-tier assets and talent for something that wasn't comparable. Taylor Hall, a future Hart Trophy winner, was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Adam Larsson.

It was seen as cap management, but Hall would have been a great addition to the Oilers with McDavid or Draisaitl, and just imagine how strong the team would have been with him in the lineup.

Larsson never lived up to expectations, and he never posted more than 4 goals every season with the Oilers and accumulated a -28 on ice while carrying a cap hit of $4.2 Million. On the whole, the trade was unfortunate and unbalanced.

With these two trades in particular, Chiarelli earned Oilers fans' disdain and will live in infamy for a long time. GM Ken Holland is still working on repairing the damage.

As Seen On: thehockeywriters.com