Taylor Hall for Cody Ceci was almost a thing
By baggedmilk
6 years agoOver at TSN 1260, Darren Dreger appeared on The Nielson Show to talk Oilers, fishing for Mike Hoffman, and whatever else is going on, but the big nugget came when he spoke about a Taylor Hall trade that almost happened.
As you would expect and hope considering how bad this season as gone, Nielson asked Dreger about the possibility of the Oilers upgrading their offence. He looked at a guy like Mike Hoffman in Ottawa and asked the insider if this was the kind of guy that the Oilers should go fishing for. Makes sense, right? But that’s where things got weird:
“I think that there’s some history between these two organizations that is going to hamper the likelihood of a deal.”
History? What are you talking about? I know Chiarelli used to work for the Senators but that was 100 years ago. What could possibly be going on here?
“We remember Peter Chiarelli back in the early days and he had that squabble before going to Boston with the Ottawa Senators. There was some bad blood there as he tried to get out and all of those things. I don’t know if that still lingers, but some think it might.”
Oh good. Grown ass men holding grudges for over a decade. Chiarelli left the Senators in 2006 and there could still be bad blood? This is ridiculous.
“And these two clubs came real close to making a pretty big trade not that long ago and just couldn’t get it done.”
Oh yeah? What was it? Some kind of tweak between teams “on the rise” probably. Something that wouldn’t have been a complete waste, right?
“That trade was Taylor Hall for I think they finally got to a place where Ottawa was willing to consider Cody Ceci – so it would have been Hall for Ceci.”
Wait a minute… Hall for Ceci? Peter Chiarelli was realistically going to trade the Oilers’ second best player at the time for a guy that had one decent season, and has done nothing since? Perfect. What happened?
“(It) had to be cleared in Ottawa through ownership. And before they could get clearance, Hall got traded to New Jersey for Larsson.”
I think I’m going to be sick. Nielson, can you take over for a second?
Nielson: There would have been more on that deal, right?
“I don’t think so. I don’t think so.”
Stunned Nielson: Really?
*I stop vomiting and get back up off the floor*
WHAT IS IT WITH PETER CHIARELLI AND ONE-FOR-ONE TRADES THAT HE LOSES ALL THE TIME!? I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS! Alright, Baggo, calm down here. That trade didn’t happen, Adam Larsson is pretty cool, and we can just be happy that this didn’t actually go through. This is okay. This is fine. The trade didn’t go through and we’re fine.
Now, back to Hoffman. How’s that looking?
“I don’t know that these two teams are best suited to make a deal, but I know that Peter Chiarelli should and does have some interest in Mike Hoffman.”
Gord dammit.
THE WRAP…
Now, before I get started I know some of you are going to say “get over the Hall trade” and blah blah blah, but this is newsworthy. If what Darren Dreger is saying is actually true, and he’s not just trolling us all, then Oilers fans should be very concerned about Peter Chiarelli being the man behind any future deals for this franchise. This isn’t about Taylor Hall. This is about the guy in charge of making trades having the ability to win those deals.
If these are the kind of trade options that were on the table, and Chiarelli realistically considered them, then we should all be worried about what kind of panic moves could be on the horizon. If this kind of stuff along with Chiarelli’s trade history of moving big pieces, aren’t enough to make you nervous about this guy negotiating deals then I don’t know what will get you there. I mean, I get why Chiarelli would try to save his job, but we’re the ones that will still be cheering for this team long after he’s fired and ruining another organization.
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