Ottawa Senators fire GM, Peter Chiarelli among names rumoured as possible replacement
8 months ago
A few familiar faces are in contention for the Ottawa Senators general manager vacancy.
On Wednesday afternoon, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion was being relieved of his duties. It was a long time coming, as the Senators have failed to reach the postseason since his first year in charge, where they were one goal away from a Stanley Cup Final berth.
Since then, they’ve been rather horrendous, trading away franchise icon Erik Karlsson for what actually turned out to be a solid trade, and picking up Josh Norris and Tim Stützle for a rather impressive young core. Still, there have been some duds in Dorion’s transaction career, such as the first Alex DeBrincat trade, which saw the Chicago Blackhawks select Kevin Korchinski.
The trade itself wasn’t so bad until you consider they traded DeBrincat a year and two days later for a significantly weaker package: Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, and what will likely be Boston’s first-round pick.
So, who could potentially fill this vacancy?
Well, Servalli reported shortly after that former Oiler defenceman Steve Staios will take over as the interim general manager. Staios played 1,001 NHL games between 1995 and 2011, including 573 of them with Edmonton. In early October, he left his post in the Oilers front office to join the Ottawa Senators as their President of Hockey Operations. When that happened, it appeared as though Dorion would eventually be out the door, though it’s unclear if Staios will stay as Ottawa’s PoHO and GM.
Speaking of former Oilers front office members, Peter Chiarelli was mentioned as someone who could take over for Dorion as the team’s general manager in the future. After being fired by the Oilers in 2019, Chiarelli joined the St. Louis Blues in an advisory role and recently returned to the Senators, where his career started in the team’s legal department back in 1999-00.
Fans in Edmonton will certainly have a lot to tell fans in Ottawa about Chiarelli. He brought you some of the best trades in Oilers history, such as the 16th overall and 33rd overall in the stacked 2015 draft, as well as nearly trading Taylor Hall for Cody Ceci, instead settling on Adam Larsson. You may also know Chiarelli for trading fan-favourite Jordan Eberle for third-line centre Ryan Strome, and then proceeding to trade Strome for Ryan Spooner, who was out of the league just a few months later.
Chiarelli may still be in contention for Ottawa’s general manager role at some point, but as Oilers fans, we can all say that Ottawa made the right decision in giving Staios the interim tag, instead of Chiarelli.
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