Chiarelli named GM of the Year candidate

This news shouldn’t come as a surprise to many, but this evening it was announced that Peter Chiarelli has been named a candidate for the General Manager of the year.

In his second year with the Edmonton Oilers, Chiarelli played a key part in assembling the Oilers first 100-point season campaign since 1986-87.

His squad earned a berth into the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in a decade and had the best single-season turnaround in the league last year.

In his first season with the Oilers, his team finished the year with a record of 31-43-8 for 70 points. This year, his team finished with a 47-26-9 record for 103 points.

Chiarelli has been bold in his time with the Oilers, often making unpopular moves that have benefitted the team as a whole.

Such trades, like Hall-for-Larsson and the Davidson-for-Desharnais, along with the signings of Milan Lucic and Kris Russell, have all been scrutinized by fans of the squad.

Despite that, his team reacted how one would hope by blowing expectations out of the water.

Chiarelli has made other moves like the Cam Talbot deal which have been far less scrutinized, but just as important as the others.

His work as GM has helped the Oilers bolster their blue-line and cut down the teams goals-against from 245 the season before, to 212 this year.

This is his first ever nomination for the award.

Peter Chiarelli is the third Oiler to be nominated for an award.

He joins Connor McDavid’s nomination for the Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award and Todd McLellan’s Jack Adams Award nomination.

Two other candidates were named: Pierre Dorion with the Ottawa Senators and David Poile with the Nashville Predators.

In Dorions second season, his Senators had their second best regular season record in the past decade and have advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2007.

His first major moves were the hiring of Guy Boucher and Marc Crawford behind the bench which has paid dividends.

He followed it up by trading for Derick Brassard in the offseason.

Poile has lead the Predators to a postseason berth for the 10th time in 13 seasons and helped them advance to the conference finals for the first time.

Viktor Arvidsson, a 112th overall selection in 2014, highlights the Predators ability to grow their own talent. Others like Pekka Rinne, Roman Jose, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis are other great examples.

His trades to bring in the likes of PK Subban, Ryan Johansen, James Neal, Filip Forsberg and Mike Fisher over the years have made the Predators the powerhouse they are now.