Opinion: Somehow, Peter Chiarelli made the Oilers worse, despite having Connor McDavid

As Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli does a postmortem on his dismissal, he has no one other than himself to blame. 

According to multiple reports, Chiarelli was fired last night after the Oilers lost 3-2 to a Detroit Red Wings team that had blown two third-period leads over the previous four days. The 45-point Red Wings are two points out of last place in the NHL.

Edmonton, which has lost three in a row, has a 23-24-3 record. The Oilers are on pace to miss the playoffs for the 12th time in 13 seasons. (They reached the playoffs in 2017 under Chiarelli, losing in the second round.)

In professional sports, people are dismissed because of bad luck as much as poor performance. This is a business in which one team must fail for another to succeed. But Chiarelli’s job was lost not because his team is under-performing, but because his time in Edmonton has been marked by poor decisions that have left this team in a mess.

Since 2015, Chiarelli has had Connor McDavid, the NHL’s most dynamic offensive star, and yet somehow Chiarelli has made so many managerial mistakes that the Oilers seem no better today than they did when he arrived. 

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