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Is Peter Chiarelli about to be named the new czar of all things hockey in Edmonton?
Sounds like #Oilers to have a press conference as early as tomorrow to announce Chiarelli. Can't confirm title at this point. #Oilers #NHL
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) April 23, 2015
Chiarelli was fired by Cam Neeley and the Bruins last week, The Edmonton Oilers wisely invited Chiarellli for an interview earlier this week. There are reports that Chiarelli never left Edmonton after his meeting with the Oilers brain trust. Now comes word that a press conference may occur on Friday.
Chiarelli left the Ottawa Senators to be Bruins' GM in 2006. He and his scouting team built the big, bad, Bruins team that won the Stanley Cup in 2011. Boston returned to the Cup final in 2013 and had the best regular-season record in the NHL a year ago before collapsing this season amid injuries to key players Zdeno Chara and David Krejci.
Chiarelli has also been jeered for trading former second overall pick in the NHL Draft Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars. Last autumn, Chiarelli traded Johnny Boychuk to the Islanders in a salary dump move that was all about the money.
Chiarelli will have a wealth of young talent to mold into a winner, including Connor McDavid.
Where there is smoke, there is fire.
This news coincides with the news that the Oilers have appointed Bob Nicholson to their CEO position. It looks like Oilers ownership is about to move away from their buddy system of management to a structured form of management.
It would make sense for Nicholson to strip the title of VP of Hockey Operations from Kevin Lowe and give it promptly to Peter Chiarelli. GM Craig MacTavish would answer directly to Chiarelli.
Lowe has been a focal point in Edmonton for nearly 17 years. He started as an assistant coach and was names head coach in 1999. He was promoted to GM when Glen Sather left for the NY Rangers in 2000. He has held the VP of Hockey Operations since the summer of 2008.
If the news is in fact true, the Oilers have had a great week of playoff hockey. They won Connor McDavid at the NHL Draft Lottery on Saturday night, promoted Nicholson on Tuesday, and likely will announce the hiring of Chiarelli on Friday.
More to come......
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Earlier this week, the Sharks and former head coach Todd McLellan agreed "mutually" to say goodbye to one another. McLellan's repeated failures to beat California rivals Anaheim and Los Angeles led to his ouster from San Jose.
Sharks fans have been critical of their long time GM Doug Wilson of late. Many are wondering how Wilson has emerged unscathed from the wreckage that is the 2014-15 season. Wilson's job is safe, for now. However, the organization is now in the early stages of a top-down evaluation.
Let the rebuild commence.
Wilson issued this statement on Monday after he and McLellan parted ways.
“I want to thank Todd and his staff for their years of service to the San Jose Sharks organization,… said Wilson. “Sometimes a change is best for all parties involved but nothing will take away from what Todd and his staff accomplished here over the last seven seasons.…
McLellan, named head coach of the Sharks on June 12, 2008, left the Sharks franchise leader in wins (311), games coached (540) and points percentage (.637), with an overall record of 311-163-66. In that span, the team captured three Pacific Division titles (2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11) and one Presidents’ Trophy (2008-09).
During his tenure, the Sharks made seven appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including two appearances in the Conference Final (2010, 2011) and played in 11 playoff rounds, with an overall record of 30-32.
The San Jose Sharks are in rebuild mode. Their owner, Hasso Plattner confirmed it in this open letter to his season ticket holders on Thursday. The Sharks have had a week unlike any that the organization has seen in the past decade.
April 23, 2015
For fans everywhere in the world it is difficult to see their favorite team missing the season goals. The Sharks had a good run for many years and made it three times to the conference finals, but that’s not enough when the competition from Southern California won the cup three times in the same time frame.
We got fortunate when we acquired Joe Thornton in a trade and had with Todd McLellan an excellent head coach. What was the missing piece? Was it drafting, trading, rental players, we tried them all. We clearly had a window of opportunity, but the NHL has a very balanced constitution which doesn’t allow for money to become the dominant factor. You can’t buy a team, you have to build it which is very fair. And after you traded picks for ready-to-play veterans, you sooner or later have to start rebuilding the team. We had hoped that we can do both, stay competitive and rebuild at the same time. It was close but the other teams in our conference were better, at least throughout the whole season and deservedly finished ahead of us. Remember where we were end of January in the standings? Now the question is should we have traded for reinforcements and block the young hopefuls from playing or should we have started the rebuilding process even a year or two earlier?
The answer is that it doesn’t matter anymore, we are where we are. Seven young players made the team, another few hopefuls with great success stories in the juniors can be watched playing for the Barracuda next season. Once we committed ourselves to the rebuild we had to steer straight, even if there was some disappointment.
The management, John and Doug, did a good job. We are trying to finalize with the City of San Jose a new arena deal keeping the Sharks at home. We are trying but have not been successful to change the unfavorable TV deal the Sharks management signed a while ago. On the other hand, we got the organization streamlined and focused on hockey. The coaching staff had been outstanding, the seven continuous years with Head Coach McLellan is a testimony of that. The rebuild is in full progress, the team is now amongst the youngest in the league and has a great future.
The fans can be reassured that the ownership and the management are committed to do everything possible in order to achieve sustainable success. I want to thank them and the loyal season ticket holders and corporate partners for their support. Are we perfect? No, not all moves will play out as thought and the competition will do everything to keep us at bay. But we have a tremendous core, the older players are still fully committed, and some of the sophomores will enter their third year. With some luck in the draft this summer and a new team behind the bench we will fully attack again and show some good sport. The goal will always be to reach the playoffs and win 16 games there in one season.
Hasso Plattner
Doug Wilson's strained relationship with his best player and former captain Joe Thornton doesn't appear to be fixable. The two men have traded public smack talk with one another this season. I expect Thornton to approach Wilson this summer with a short list of teams that he will accept a trade to. Thornton is protected by a no movement clause. My guess is that he will want to leave San Jose to pursue a Stanley Cup elsewhere. Ditto Patrick Marleau. Thornton has two years remaoning on his current contract at a $6.7M AAV while Marleau has two years remaining at $6.6M AAV. Trading Thornton and/or Marleau will give Wilson a massive chuck of salary cap space that he can use to invest in his own restricted free agents and pending unrestricted free agents. Wilson can still fetch a fistful of assets (i.e.: prospects and draft choices), however, with the declining Canadian dollar and the shrinking salary cap, there are only a few NHL teams who can afford to trade for heavy contracts like those that belong to Thornton and Marleau. Buffalo's Tim Murray is one such GM who could male a deal with Doug Wilson. Murray has cap space and oodles of prospects and prime draft picks. Keep an eye on Logan Couture as well. He's a $6 million cap hit for four more seasons. Tim Murray is very familiar with the Ottawa 67 Couture having watched him develop in his backyard while while with the Ottawa Senators. Couture is a center who also plays wing. He's a strong puck possession man and thrives on the PP and PK. Why would Wilson trade Couture to Buffalo? To get his hands on a tower of power like Nikita Zadorov and a first rounder in the Connor McDavid draft.
It was clear when Wilson stripped the "C" from Thornton's sweater last summer that the Sharks were becoming a youth movement team. Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Tommy Wingels, Ben Smith, Tomas Hertl, Matt Nieto Melker Karlsson, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Justin Braun are the young core unit who will carry the mantle for years to come. Doug Wilson will attempt to add more difference making players via free agency and the NHL draft.
Doug Wilson will be an active GM this summer.
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