Ryan Strome

Traded for someone who was a lesser player at the time, straight up.

Jordan Eberle

June 22nd 2017

Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli trades a player who was consistently scoring 20-30 goals a season, who still had two full years left on his contract and who helped get the Oilers to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

Ryan Spooner with 22.5% retention

Traded for this guy, straight up.

Traded fo someone that the Rangers were thinking of buying out, which the Canucks did at the end of that season.

At this point, trading away Eberle in the first place should have been treated as nothing more than a sunk cost or collateral damage.

But this obviously made matters even worse.

Interestingly, Spooner was an Ottawa native just like Chiarelli, a former 2nd round draft pick of Chiarelli's during their Boston Bruin days, and someone that Chiarelli turned into a hockey player that was more than capable of playing in the NHL.

Chiarelli trusted Spooner.

He felt he had to during what was extremely dire circumstances during his tenure as Oilers GM.

When I first found out about this trade, I looked through the details and when I reached the point on what I thought of the trade overall, I was horrified for the Oilers.

It really felt like Chiarelli was either chasing his losses from the Eberle trade with the Islanders like a degenerate gambler ...

Or was chasing past glory out of nostalgia like an orphan searching for his parents.

Of the three trades shown in this post, this is the worst for the Oilers IMO.

Ryan Strome

November 16th 2018

Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli trades a player who had a decent first season wth the Oilers but struggled to find his game in the second season, who had some playoff success with his first NHL team, who was formerly drafted 5th overall and whose contract's expiry status at the time was that of a RFA instead of a UFA.

At this point, Wayne Gretzky's brother takes over as Interim GM. Also, Craig MacTavish and Kevin Lowe are still running the Oilers' front office while Oilers' owner Daryl Katz is battling facial deformities and a life-threatening illness. Obviously, there were other things that were wrong with the Oilers behind the scenes at the time other than Chiarelli being an idiot :/

Peter Chiarelli

January 22nd 2019

Peter Chiarelli is fired as Oilers GM.

This is two months after the Strome-Spooner trade with the Rangers and mere hours after signing Mikko Koskinen to a 4.5 million x 3 extension. I find it funny that the Oilers allowed Chiarelli to give Koskinen that contract and then they fired him the next day! Wow! :D

A fall from grace for someone who was the architect of the Boston Bruins team that won the stanley cup in 2011. Pretty sad :(

Sam Gagner

This brought an end to a very bizarre sequence of 1 for 1 trades involving the Oilers. IMO, this sequence was worse than trading Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson straight up. I can only imagine the bickering and the backstabbing that went on within the Oilers' front office at the time. Good Golly! :D

Ryan Spooner

February 16th 2019

Less than a month after firing Chiarelli and about 3 months after the Strome-Spooner trade with the Rangers, Interim Oilers GM Keith Gretzky trades Spooner for Sam Gagner, another depth forward in the NHL who had his fair share of struggles from time to time. Of the three trades in this sequence, this was the least bad IMO, especially considering that Spooner was bought out by the Canucks soon afterwards and that Gagner had success with the Oilers in the past.