When Peter Chiarelli arrived in Edmonton, the speculation was not how he was going to surround Hall, RNH, and Eberle with complementary talent. The speculation was which of the “Six Million Dollar Men” Chia would trade first. While previous management regimes were chastised for not having the guts to pull the trigger, Chia had a reputation for being willing to make bold moves.
The narrative surrounding the team was that the club had struck out with the high end talent until they found their Golden Ticket in Connor McDavid. Sure, these players were offensively talented, but they weren’t winners. I don’t want to say “Locker-room Cancers” but definitely not leaders either. The media was getting restless with the constant losing and fingers were getting pointed at Edmonton’s longest serving, highest profile forwards.
While the nerds and bloggers (and nerd bloggers) were screaming to anyone who would listen that Taylor Hall was actually incredibly talented and in no-way responsible for the fact that his team was useless when he was on the bench, Peter Chiarelli was watching his team and realizing that the defense was wildly imbalanced. He decided that he was willing to pay any price, no matter how ridiculous, to fix it.
It’s hard to blame him for feeling desperate to add RHD after the 2015-2016 season. His relationship with Boston had locked Edmonton out of the Dougie Hamilton trade the summer prior (
and he knee-jerked into that Reinhart deal). In 2015-2016 Justin Schultz had imploded, lost his scoring ability, couldn’t defend, and was dealt to Pittsburgh (who played him 13 minutes a night on defense). The next highest scoring RHD was Mark Fayne with 7 points then Eric Gryba with 6. It was a wasteland of defensive talent that included Nikita Nikitin, Brad Hunt, Adam Clendening, and the failing Andrew Ference.
Obviously something needed to be addressed. In the free agent courting period of summer 2016 the Oilers brought two players to visit the new Arena and sunny Edmonton: Milan Lucic and RHD Jason Demers. The Oilers would go on to promise the moon to Lucic. Demers was suddenly dropped from discussions. Lucic signed in Edmonton. Demers signed in Florida. The Oilers had gone in a very different, much more expensive direction.
On June 29th 2016 Peter Chiarelli made the trade that will come to define him as the General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers. Or rather, define him as the worst ever General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers. He traded offensive star Taylor Hall for “stay at home” defender Adam Larsson. The deal was one for one. Edmonton finally had added talent to the right side of the defense, but at a terrible price.
As an Oiler, Taylor Hall had been an NHL All-Star and until 97 arrived, he was one of the only reasons to watch the team. A failure to recognize how bad the team was with Hall on the bench compared to when he was on the ice was pervasive in Edmonton and that failure rippled through the management of the team, apparently.
Without going too great into all the numbers, I’ll discuss just two. There’s possession (shot attempts) and there’s goals.
At 5v5 hockey over 6 seasons of brutal Oilers hockey, Edmonton was only -108 in total shot attempts with Hall on the ice. In terms of percentage that is 49.5% CF because that is over 10,000 attempts combined for and against over 6 years (actually 5373 for and 5481 against). With Hall on the bench, the Oilers had just 13,068 shot attempts for and 15,532 shot attempts against, which is 45.7% CF. That’s an incredible -2464 shot attempts with Hall on the bench and just -108 with him on the ice.
At 5v5 Taylor Hall’s Oilers were +3 in goals for over 6 seasons. They had scored 262 for and had 259 scored against them for a 50.3% GF. With Hall on the bench 5v5, the Oilers scored 471 goals for and had 698 goals scored against. For those not scoring along at home, that’s -227 goals or 40.3% GF with Hall catching his breath between shifts.
THIS was the player the Oilers traded for a stay at home defender.
I like Adam Larsson just fine. He’s rough in the corners, much tougher than I anticipated when they got him (sorry for making assumptions, Sweden), and he’s much worse offensively than I ever thought. After watching Adam Larsson for a year and a half, I think we can say for certain now that this player is particularly bad at moving the puck forward.
Larsson struggles to make even short breakout passes to forwards in flight, often preferring to give the puck back to his defensive partner. In 2016-2017 that meant giving the puck to Oscar Klefbom. It was a good fit and the pair had obvious chemistry. A healthy Klefbom who was free to make offensive contributions was a beautiful sight, and I think a defensively conscious Adam Larsson gave Klefbom a lot of confidence to take those chances. And Adam Larsson picked up more secondary assists than anyone on the team by simply giving the puck over to his partner.
2017-2018 has not been so kind to either player and it is exposing Adam Larsson. What we’ve seen now is that this player does not possess the ability to make impacts on his own. It’s hardly a damning statement since very few people do have that quality. Unfortunately for him, the man he was traded for does.
Here we are a year and a half since the trade was made and the Edmonton Oilers still lack the RHD they covet. Edmonton’s blueline lacks a puck mover and a potential PP option with a right hand shot. Larsson’s contract is not a detriment in any way, but he cost the club much more than the $4.166M they are paying him per year.
As far as what Peter Chiarelli did with this trade, it’s very difficult not to come to the conclusion that he paid a massive price for a one dimensional defender. It’s impossible to imagine what the team believed they were getting in Larsson that could cover the asking price. Taylor Hall was Edmonton’s 2nd best player behind only Connor McDavid. He’s going to be an All-Star again this year because Chiarelli gave the New Jersey Devils their best player. In return he got someone who might be their 3rd or 4th best defender.
In the service of adding a middling RHD to a team that didn’t have any depth at that position, Peter Chiarelli gave up the opportunity to dominate clubs offensively with McDavid, Hall, and Draisaitl over the boards in waves. Today, the Oilers still list RHD as one of their organizational needs but now also scoring wingers. Peter was robbed and they didn’t even pay Paul.
The trade is one for one.
Most important move by General Manager Peter Chiarelli: Total Bust
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