Oilers front office looks willing to mortgage the future to save their jobs

Here are a couple of facts about the Edmonton Oilers:

1. Because they have the best player on earth, every year they aren’t competitive is both a colossal waste and a testament to the incompetence of their front office

2. This season, they are not competitive.

More specifically, they are a couple of points (and more importantly three teams) from even the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs, and nowhere near the top-three in the Pacific Division. They are 24th in the NHL in both goals for and goals against. Their underlying numbers don’t suggest they’ve been particularly unlucky.

Their forward corps consists of the trio of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and the mystical 30 percent shooting version of Alex Chiasson. All eight other forwards that draw into their lineup each game can be described, generously, as “human bodies.” On defence they are fine at best and in the net they have Cam Talbot, who hasn’t be good in two years, and MikKo Koskinen, who’s definitely good at the KHL level and might be OK here.

This is not a team a piece or two away from a title. Adding to the 2018-19 Oilers at the expense of future seasons would be borderline unconscionable and yet apparently that’s the way the team is leaning.

One takeaway from this is that the Oilers think they are a winger or two away from taking off. The reality is they might be able to grab a wild-card spot and get crunched by any of the Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks or Vegas Golden Knights. Make no mistake, any of those teams would almost certainly clobber even a seriously revamped Oilers squad.

Trading a first-round pick in order to make that outcome more likely would be beyond foolish. They can ill afford to move a goalie, and considering both their goalies are in their 30s no rebuilding club would want them — and any contender could do better. Giving up on a young forward who could help fill their biggest hole as soon as next year hardly feels like a brilliant strategy.

This whole thing doesn’t really require a piece-by-piece breakdown, though. If the Oilers actually give up these type of pieces to aid a doomed run this season it won’t have much to do with team building at all. Instead, it’ll be an indication that an under-fire Pete Chiarelli is doing everything he can to preserve his job as GM, no matter the cost. Even if you look at this type of move as a long-term solution, Chiarelli is not the guy you want orchestrating it.

Someone who’s going to be around for a while wouldn’t sell any of the Oilers’ future to make a run with such a mediocre team. That’s the path of a person who knows they need some modicum of success this second. If the Oilers start selling off long-term parts to help this roster it will be a cynical act of self-preservation.

Chiarelli knows that his moves in Edmonton (the Taylor Hall trade, the Milan Lucic contract etc.) have put him on the chopping block, and rightfully so. The walls are closing in and he’s looking for a way out. The fact this is an avenue he’s considering shows precisely why his job is in such danger in the first place.

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