Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli is the NHLs most infamous trader.

The list of players that have been dealt away during his watch in Boston and Edmonton is an impre sive one and includes the likes of Blake Wheeler, Phil Ke sel, Tyler Seguin, Taylor Halland Jordan Eberle. Most general managers go an entire career without having that many All-Star level forwards in their grasp, let alonetrading them all away them.

In almost all of those cases, the returnhas been far, far, far le s than fair value (Ke sel being the exception, as it returned the picks that resulted in Seguin and Dougie Hamilton). In some cases it has been laughably bad.

During Chiarelli'sfirst three years running the Oilers, his tenure has been highlighted by such big, bold moves.

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2015 Chiarellitraded two top-35 draft picks (which turned out to be Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier) for former top-five selectionGriffin Reinhart, then tradedthree more picks for goalie Cam Talbot.

2016 Chiarellitraded eventual league MVP Taylor Hall to the Devils for middling defenseman Adam Lar son.

2016 Chiarelli signed Milan Lucic and Kris Ru sell to long-term contracts paying a combined $10 million per season.

2017 Chiarelli traded Jordan Eberleto the Islanders for Ryan Strome.

Again, most of those moves did not produce the desired results. Some of them were made in the name of changing what had become a losing culture and breaking up a core that had not won. Some of them were made to trade from a position strength (forwards) to fill a weakne s (defense). Whatever the reason, every offseason with Chiarelli at the helmhas seen at least one significant, franchise-altering move. And not franchise-altering in a positive way.

What has to make it all the more frustrating for Oilers fans is that the team probably would have been better off had the team simply stood pat with the roster it had, especially as it added Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the top of the 2014 and 2015 drafts. The talent going out compared to the talent coming in did not match, and the $10 million going to Lucic and Ru sellcould have been spent in a better way, especially as the team inches closer and closer to the cap Drue Tranquill Jerseys ceiling.

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Even worse: Hindsight isn't really a factor in a se sing a lot of these situations, since the moves (specifically the Hall and Eberle trades,as well Joe Reed Jerseys as the Lucic and Ru sell signings) were almost immediately panned and criticized.

Then came this summer in the wake of a bitterly disappointing season that saw the Oilers go from Game 7 of the second round in 2017 to completely mi sing the playoffs and being one of the worst teams in the league in fewer than 12 months. In the proce s, they wasted the final year of McDavid's cheap entry-level deal, probably robbed of him what should have been a second consecutive MVP award, and completely fell back off the NHL map.

It would have been easy and probably expected for them to do something major in an effort to shake things up or make a change. That is, after all, what the Oilers and Chiarelli do.The No. 10 overall draft pick was floated as trade bait. There was always the po sibility that another core playerlike Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Oscar Klefbom could have been dealt.

Instead, the Oilers did nothing.

They stayed at No. 10 and lucked their way into defenseman Evan Bouchard, a selection that currently looks like great value. They resisted the urge to ship out Klefbom at what was probably his lowest po sible value.They kept Nugent- Ty Long Jerseys Hopkins, who remains an underrated player capable of making a big impact (he had 24 goals and 24 a sists in only 68 games this past season). Their additions in free agency were mostly bargain-basement signings that didn't break the bank or their salary cap number.

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All of this is ...totally reasonable. Seriously. It is. Doing nothing was probably the best bet here.

First, there is the po sibility that the 2017-18 Oilers were better than their final spot in the standings. I know, you are what your record says you are, but sometimes crazy things happen in hockey and it can be one of the least predictable sports out there. Even after tradingHall and Eberle in back-to-back offseasons, they still have a trio of stars in McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins who can still be the foundation of a contending team. Even though those threecost a lot of money, they are just entering their prime years right now and the Oilers are still getting value for that financial commitment. Those three can carry an offense a long way.

Edmonton wasalso a decent five-on-fiveteam for much of the season, only to be devastated by disastrous special teams and a goalie situation that resulted in Talbot getting run into the ground (for the second year in a row) as they had no reliable backup to give him a rest.

The power play struggles were alarming given that it is a team that has McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins as forward options, and Maurice Ffrench Jerseys it is still unknown as to whether or not those areas can be easily fixed. That's especially true in the goaltending department, where Talbot will still be relied on to carry the load ahead ofnew backupMikko Koskinen, a 30-year-old netminderwhohas all of four games of NHL experience all coming during the 2010-11 season. Koskinenhas spent the past six seasons playing overseas, including the last five in the KHL. To say he is a mystery is an understatement.

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There is also reason to believe thatKlefbom can bounce back from an injury-plagued season that saw his play badly regre s. That is why the thought of trading him seemed like such a horrendous idea. Had it happened, it would have been easy to see that being the next move to come back and bite the Oilers. A Klefbom trade this summer would have been dealing him at his lowest po sible value and jettisoning the best, most talented blue-liner on the team. During the 2016-17 season Klefbom was tremendous on the Edmonton defense and there is every reason to believe he can get back to that level.

Before the 2017-18 season, the Oilers were pegged by many (including the oddsmakers in Vegas) to be a potential Stanley Cup winning team. That hype was premature, because even with arguably the best player in the world and a couple of other high-level forwards, the Oilers Justin Herbert Hoodies Sweatshirts were, and still are, a very flawed team. They lack depth beyond the top forwards, the defense is not great, goaltending is a question. They were maybe not quite as good as their 2016-17 playoff run indicated. At the same time, they are probably not quite as bad as the disastrous 2017-18 season would have you believe, either, because pretty much everything went wrong at the same time.