Monday Mailbag – First thoughts on the Strome for Spooner trade?

Welcome, friends, to yet another edition of the Monday Mailbag. It’s the weekly series where our panel of writers gives you a little bit of wisdom and insight into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Edmonton Oilers. As always, this feature depends on you guys so I need you to submit your questions. If you have something you’d like to know you can always email me, or DM me on Twitter. With that out of the way, it’s time to learn something. Enjoy.

It’s one under-achiever for another. Why? Chiarelli knows Spooner, drafted him in Boston. Probably thinks there’s more there than what he’s been showing.

Adds someone with more potential offensive punch and who is quicker. He wanted more secondary scoring, and more speed.

I think Spooner has had more success offensively but at the expense of possession. Still, he hadn’t had a great goal share the last few seasons. I think Chia pulled the trigger because his job is on the line and he can’t afford to sit back and watch the season go down the drain.

I don’t think we can say that there was an immediate winner or loser in this deal. The Oilers swapped out a struggling, defensively sound forward for a struggling, offensively minded forward. Time will tell. As for why the deal got done now, I would imagine the Rangers ran out of patience with Spooner. I can’t imagine the Oilers were actively shopping Strome.

It won’t change much. Chiarelli’s looking for more scoring and counting on an unproven player to replace Strome. It’s not a terrible bet, Strome had 2 points on the season, but relying on rookies is something the Oilers have done again and again with poor results. Chiarelli’s trying to spark something. Their start isn’t bad but the recent stretch has taken the shine off the first month of the season.

I don’t hate it. I’m glad Chia got the Rangers to retain some salary. It’s more of a change of scenery for both guys and I wish the best for Strome in New York.

I was surprised to be honest. Despite the lack of offence, I didn’t think Strome was hurting the team so I was surprised to see Chiarelli move on from him so quickly. I’ll wait and see how how it plays out for a bit, but for now it seems like a wash to me.

Interesting question. Fans didn’t think Eberle was much of an asset when they were screaming that he was a soft player with no jam after his no-show in the playoffs a couple of years ago. He had to go. Dump him. Remember? The real negative in that trade was Chiarelli didn’t use the cap space he gained to do anything. I don’t mind the move for Spooner, but before we talk about “asset management,” we need to see if he shows more than Strome did.

I wouldn’t worry about Eberle trade. They lost that trade. It was apparent the day trade was made in my eyes. So you move on. I see no reason to keep Strome around only because he was traded for Eberle. They felt Spooner could help them more today, so I see no issue with making the trade. Strome was put in the role to be third line C…He was never going to be a goal scoring RW. I don’t think they acquired him to be that.

Peter Chiarelli is the GM of the Oilers. Asset management has been a problem since his first ever draft day with the organization. Eberle for Strome was the big downgrade. Strome for Spooner is a minor downgrade by comparison. The 16 month thing is only surprising in that anyone in the organization is capable of admitting a mistake at all, even IF it took 1.33 years.

I think his poor asset management is shining through. People can sit around and talk about Eberle’s cap hit and all that, but the point is that he dealt an asset when it’s value was at its lowest points. It’s becoming a regular thing. The Strome for Spooner deal isn’t horrible, but big picture, it’s another example of Chiarelli’s lack of ability to win big moves.

The spin was the Eberle trade was a ‘salary dump’, although the Oilers had a ridiculously amount of cap space all last season and extended Kris Russell to a bad contract almost immediately after trading Eberle. It’s bad asset management. Neither Strome or Spooner are close to Eberle. The Bruins wanted to dump Spooner in the Rick Nash trade last year and the Rangers wanted to do the same after he couldn’t replicate his 20-game hot streak. Looks like another questionable trade.

Yeah this trade proves of awful asset managment by Chiarelli… but this is what we kind of knew already. Chia’s making this trade to make-up for an already bad trade and it was only bound to happen sooner or later.

I think it’s embarrassing that he’s already traded away the only return he got for Jordan Eberle. Say what you will about Ebs, the guy scores 25+ goals per year and that’s a skill that the Oilers desperately need right now and to send Ryan Strome out this quickly is yet another blemish on Chiarelli’s report card. How the guy still has a job is beyond me.

Look at the team Chiarelli inherited and the team he has now. It’s a fail across the board, particularly in off-season moves. We’ve seen decent returns from some of the less significant transactions but no payoff for the bigger ones — Hall for Larsson, Eberle for Strome etc.

I’d give him a C-. His main issue was Reinhart trade because they have nothing to show for it and it cost them two high draft picks. The Hall trade is a close second. He has done better in smaller type trades getting Maroon, Kassian, Marody and Talbot for very little. His small signings have been okay, but the big ticket ones have not paid off.

Trades – 5/5 Milburys

Signings – 4/5 Snows

In-Season Adjustments – 4/5 Tambellinis

Overall I would call Chiarelli’s tenure here an unmitigated disaster that has all but ensured McDavid’s career won’t have a chance to reach its potential for years. Pretty impressive.

I can understand why they did the deal to some degree. Both players are struggling and could benefit from a change of scenery. Remember, Chiarelli and Keith Gretzky drafted Spooner in Boston, so they’re obviously familiar with the player. It’s a gamble, like any trade, but given that they know the player pretty well, I think it’s a calculated move. Maybe they can find a way to turn Spooner into a consistent offensive producer, which Strome was not.

Chiarelli’s trying to add scoring because the Oilers can’t score without Connor McDavid on the ice. I rate Chiarelli’s time as Edmonton GM incredibly poorly. Edmonton lives and dies with McDavid/Leon Draisaitl/Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, three players Chiarelli didn’t acquire. The defence is mediocre and Chiarelli’s additions came at either extreme prices via trade (Taylor Hall) or signing (4×4 for Russell). He’s had some decent moves. Patrick Maroon was a nice add. Cam Talbot’s had a couple strong seasons for Edmonton. Still, this is the fourth season of Connor McDavid’s career and they’re not a guarantee for the playoffs in a terrible division. The expectations should be higher and Chiarelli’s failed to add meaningful support around McDavid.

I would rate all three of those equally bad and they’re all tied together. He’s forced to make bad signings to make up for bad trades, and vice versa. His tenure as the Oilers GM is running out.

Despite winning a Stanley Cup, Peter Chiarelli will go down as one of the worst GM’s ever for his time here. He was gifted a generational talent and has done nothing with it outside of the one season. And don’t give me the, ‘yeah but he won a Cup so there’ argument because so did Jay Feaster and where is that dude now?

No idea. Leave them there. Let them play, which is actually finally happening at the AHL level under Jay Woodcroft. Neither one is going to be a difference maker at the NHL level right now.

They should stay there until they are playing consistently every night. No need to rush them back. I love the fact Puljujarvi showed some fire and dropped the mitts with Corey Tropp on Friday night. He skated well, had four shots and was engaged in the game. Good for him. He added a goal and an assist in his second game and looked like he was having fun. If one comes up first it has to be Puljujarvi. Yamamoto isn’t ready to contribute in NHL.

I say Jesse Puljujarvi gets back first. Also I hope they both stay in the AHL for almost the whole year.

I would say they’ll be in Bakersfield until at least the new year. Even if they go and rip things up for a few weeks, I think their stay in California should be an extended one. As far as who should get recalled first, I think that will be determined 100% by their level of play.

I could see one of them called up after a point-per-game run of 15-20 games. My guess is Yamamoto. McLellan hasn’t trusted Puljujarvi and barring a coaching change they’ll rely on Yamamoto if both have success in Bakersfield.

Honestly i feel like they’ll both get recalled together at the same time. My guess is after Christmas we’ll see them get called up, however if things continue to go badly here we might see them sooner.

I hope they stay down for the rest of the year, to be honest. The Oilers need to develop their skilled prospects correctly and that starts with making sure they’re playing in the league that best suits their current level. Right now, that’s the AHL for both of those guys.

Don’t have a number I’d like. With the way the Oilers coughed up leads against Calgary and Vegas this weekend heading onto the road, they’ll do well to win three games during the rest of the stretch.

Before the weekend I thought they needed to go 5-2-1…Which means they need to go 5-0-1 in the next six, and that seems highly unlikely considering they are 1-6 in their last seven. Anaheim, LA and Vegas are not great teams. If you can beat Nashville, Washington, Winnipeg and Boston the Oilers should be able to defeat their Pacific foes. They better wake up this week.

It’s not off to a good start. 5-2 record against the Pacific would make me happy.

They should beat LA twice and I would like to see them get points in at least three of the other five. Anything worse than say 3-3-1 and I think we could see some jobs lost, but I think it’s entirely possible that they go 5-2-0 as well. The Pacific has been shaky this season and the Oilers traditionally have played well within their own division. The potential is there for this to be a very successful stretch.

I don’t think you can put any number on it. They came out of a brutal start pretty well and stumbled during a time that should have been much easier.

My initial guess was 6-1, but we’re already 0-2 so that shows how much I know…

They need at least five wins. Anything less will be disappointing.

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