Ok so we live in Edmonton. Just for shits and giggles my Dad and I will listen to this Oilers show on the radio. SO MANY Oilers fans will phone in and complain about Chia Pet and how he's ruining the team. Me and my Dad just laugh because we literally told everyone how bad Chia fucked up the Bruins and he's literally doing the exact same thing now to Edmonton.
I find it absolutely bonkers and hysterical that he was nominated for GM of the year simply because he inherited the first over all pick and didn’t fuck it up. But aside from that the rest of his decisions have been YIKES. Like trading Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle then announcing, months after the Eberle trade, that he was desperately looking for high scoring wingers. That Lucic contract is going to be an utter disaster in a few years especially with his full-term no-movement clause (should Chia Pet get sacked before that contract is up, it wouldn’t surprise me if the first thing his replacement GM does is buy it out).
It also probably doesn’t help that he has a bad reputation for making trades that are terrible for his team but great for the team that he trades with. So you know other GMs in the league are going to try to take advantage of that (hell, I know I would do that if I were a GM, regardless of how under-handed it might sound, at the end of the day, it’s a business). So trying to make relatively fair trades is probably extremely difficult for him.
As for his ability to draft players well…here’s my analysis about how good* he is at drafting players beyond the top 5 picks…(* by good I mean horrible)
I mean, he’s basically trying to turn the Oilers into a second-coming of the 2011 Boston Bruins. And it’s failing miserably (because let’s face it, as great as that team was it was a total enigma, even back in 2011). A team that’s put together like the 2011 Bruins will probably never work again in the NHL, the game is too speed and skill based for a big, physical, hard-hitting team to be successful. The only reason why he’s still employed is because he put together a fluke of a Stanley Cup Winning team (looking at that team’s advanced stats…how the FUCK did that actually work out? Aside from the NHL playoffs is where goofy happens). And literally everyone (Chia pet included) is under the impression that he’ll somehow manage to do it again.