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The general belief and word that surrounded general manager
Peter Chiarelli after his firing from the Boston Bruins last week was that the face of the Boston front office for nine years could have a job somewhere in the National Hockey League tomorrow if he wanted really to. Well, it wasn’t exactly tomorrow, but it seems as if Chiarelli has landed on his feet nine days later just fine, as he’s taking over as the new general manager and President of Hockey Operations for the Edmonton Oilers.
Chiarelli’s hire (and Kevin Lowe/Craig MacTavish’s departures) seems to mark an end to the old boys’ club situation that’s been going on with the Oil for far too long, and is a legitimate move in an attempt to restore credibility to an organization that’s been a total joke since their improbable Cup run in ‘06.
But what, if anything, does Chiarelli’s new gig with Edmonton mean for the Bruins?
Theoretically, the Bruins could seek compensation for Chiarelli (like a third-round pick, for example), but that seems like an unlikely road for Cam Neely and the B’s to venture down. (They won’t.) But what about in terms of the two teams making a trade -- something that’s churned through the rumor mill for years now -- to begin the process of building the Oilers as Chiarelli would see fit for long-term success?
By now, it’s no secret that the B’s would like to add some high-end skill back into their lineup up front. And between wingers
Jordan Eberle,
Taylor Hall, and
Nail Yakupov, and centers
Leon Draisaitl,
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and expected No. 1 overall pick
Connor McDavid set to join the Oil, there’s no shortage of that in Edmonton.
So, there’s something that the Oilers could offer that would undoubtedly entice the Bruins.
Can you say the same for the Black and Gold from an Oiler point of view?
The easy answer is of course. But I’ll tell you right now that the Bruins have little (read as: no) interest in trading one of
Patrice Bergeron,
Zdeno Chara,
David Krejci or
Tuukka Rask. I’d throw pending restricted free agent
Dougie Hamilton on that list, too. And maybe even
Brad Marchand and
Torey Krug, as well.
They do have pieces that I think they’d take calls on, though. And I think
Milan Lucic is at the top of that list. As I’ve
written before, things with Lucic, a free agent at the end of next season and without an extension in place just yet, will at some point come to a breaking point for the two sides.
And if the Bruins don’t view him as a piece of their future, it’d seemingly make the most sense to maximize the return while you still can instead of letting him walk next summer.
But there are multiple schools of thought here.
For example, listening to
Cam Neely’s press conference after Chiarelli’s firing, it seemed like he was hellbent on making the Bruins bigger and tougher to play against. Lucic fits that bill when he’s going, so trading that piece out of town wouldn’t make a lot of sense from that point of view, and there’s always been a special relationship between Lucic and Neely, it seems. At the same time, for years I was told that Lucic will never be moved by the Bruins so long as Chiarelli was running the team. Chiarelli loves what Lucic brings to the table when he’s at his best. (And who wouldn’t, really?) However, Chiarelli has also gone through the self-realization that the game is transitioning to more of a skill game and not as much of a ‘heavier’ game that won Boston the Stanley Cup in 2011.
So perhaps that love affair isn’t as strong as it was, say two or three years ago. And maybe the Bruins, who have sold Lucic as a top-liner and face of the franchise type for half a decade, and in the final year of a contract that comes with a $6 million annual cap hit and without a new deal in place, have realized that their window with No. 17 donning the Spoked-B is closing sooner than initially anticipated.
It’s a strange situation, and while he’s at the center of it, Lucic is just one of several players that I could see Chiarelli targeting via trade with the Bruins this summer in an effort to put his blueprint on turning the Oilers into something more than the farce they’ve been in the Western Conference for far too long.
Other names that could intrigue Chiarelli? Goaltending prospect Malcolm Subban (the Bruins’ first-round pick in 2012) or Reilly Smith (one of the key returns in the Tyler Seguin trade of 2013). Both of whom are young and under team control, something Chiarelli has always been a fan of when making trades.
Is there a home run trade to be made with the Bruins and Oilers? Maybe. And though he’s a day into the job, trading a piece of Edmonton’s youthful core is not something Chiarelli’s necessarily advocating, but it’s not something he’ll rule out if he thinks it’ll make the Oilers a better club.
And if there’s one team that has the pieces in the NHL, minor leagues, and on the draft boards that Chiarelli thinks could make the Oilers better, it’d most definitely be the Bruins.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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