This morning, Peter Chiarelli stepped in front of the media and answered questions about yesterday’s bizarre trades that saw him sending out a third-round pick for Alex Petrovic and Drake Caggiula (along with Jason Garrison) for Brandon Manning. How did the interrogation go? Let’s explore it together.

As I was listening to the press conference, I know that the only reason they were making him available is because we all wanted to get Peter Chiarelli’s thoughts on whatever it is he’s doing right now, but the problem is that he never says anything of substance. I’ve transcribed enough of these Chiarelli press conferences now where I was almost going to skip this one, but I know some of you guys are at work and weren’t able to listen so it had to be done.

When the Oilers traded for Petrovic, I could honestly understand why Chiarelli would move to acquire a guy like him that is known as a pure defender. The Oilers are having a really tough time keeping the puck out of their net right now, and they need players that can help prevent that — this all makes sense. I didn’t particularly like that they sent a third-round pick along with Wideman to get him, but okay, it is what it is. Even with the overpay, I’m ready to go into this one with an open mind.

When asked about why he made the moves he did, Chiarelli looked at the defence as a major hole that needed to be patched up.

When asked if he was looking for defencemen that could bat higher in the order than Petrovic and Manning…

This is the part of the presser where Chia started to sound notably rattled because guys like Gregor and Rishaug kept pushing on why he added more bottom pairing defencemen to a team that has plenty of them but cannot score goals to save their lives. When asked about who is going to score outside of McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins, Chiarelli started to get a little bit testy.

Yeah, but who is the guy that put these players on the roster? Ahhhh nevermind. What’s the point? Go on…

I mean, sure but is adding two more guys that can only handle (sometimes) weak opposition really going to do that or is Hitch going to do what he’s always done and ride them anyway? What happens if Hitchcock doesn’t like playing his two new players? Then what?

This move, I really do not understand regardless of how much Chiarelli tried to defend it. According to Scott Powers who covers the Blackhawks, Manning was deemed untradeable by many around the league given the fact that he’s a poor defender with a $2.5 million cap hit for this season and next, and that’s without even going into the history he has here. So why Manning? Why now?

As Gregor wrote this morning, Manning played 358 minutes at 5×5 with the Blackhawks and was on the ice for nine Goals For and 26 Goals Against, which eventually led to him being a healthy scratch 10 times. Sooo that’s the coach’s fault? Could it be just as likely that he wasn’t good enough to play there? What if his new coach doesn’t like him either?

Whatever, man, you can defend a bad hockey player as much as you want but I’m going to be highly skeptical on this one until he proves otherwise. Given how Spooner and Wideman worked out after you traded for them, Wideman is already gone and Spooner was apparently on the block as well, I don’t really believe much that you have to say when it comes to pro-scouting.

When asked about the Connor McDavid angle to this trade, Chiarelli said he spoke to Connor about it last year when they were trying to acquire Manning from Philadelphia and that McDavid gave the okay at that time, but that he did not ask him again this year. Seems like he probably should have given the history, but what do I know about culture in the room?

So this has been the plan for a year now, huh? Happy day.

Since injuries are the major reason these moves took place, Chiarelli was asked about a couple of his defenceman that could be nearing a return. When asked about Russell, who was expected to be back in the lineup last Saturday against the Sharks, Chiarelli was vague with the details.

It also seems like Andrej Sekera will be out longer than maybe was expected.

When asked if there are any other moves that he might be looking at if this slide continues, Chiarelli terrified everyone with:

Holy hell. *buckles seatbelt*

At the end of the day, this presser played out like every other one has when Peter Chiarelli has stepped in front of the media. He says he knows there are issues, he says that they’re working to fix them, and he expects us all to believe that he’s still the man that will be able to do that. The problem is, as Jason Gregor so accurately described this morning, that most of the moves Peter Chiarelli has made for this team have been disastrous, and he can say what he wants about having ideas moving forward but the reality is that he shouldn’t still be here to begin with. He’s had more than enough time to try and build something here and it’s clear that he does not have the ability to do that so we should move on now before he causes any further damage.

The reality is that any other team would have fired him for the nightmarish lack of depth and NHL talent that he’s put around the league’s best player. How the guy can spend up to the cap and only have three players that can score is beyond me, but that seems to be acceptable for the people that run this hockey team. The fact that this team is in worse shape than it was when he took over which is not only an indictment of his work as a GM, a role he will likely never occupy again after he’s eventually fired from this gongshow, but also one on all of those people that surround him in management that are accepting this failure as being okay. I know I’ve personally been hard on Peter Chiarelli over these last 18 months, but maybe it’s time to set the sights a little bit higher. Frankly, everyone involved in this mess should be ashamed of the job they’ve done and I hope it doesn’t take Connor to ask for a trade before some actual changes occur.