By STEPHEN WHYNO, AP Hockey Writer
The Edmonton Oilers have fired president of hockey operations and general manager Peter Chiarelli amid another season that has failed to live up to expectations.
The team announced Chiarelli's abrupt dismissal Wednesday in the aftermath of its third consecutive loss. Edmonton has lost 12 of its past 16 games going into the All-Star Break. The Oilers are 14-14-2 since firing coach Todd McLellan and replacing him with Ken Hitchcock.
President and CEO Bob Nicholson said Keith Gretzky will assume more responsibilities as the Oilers look for a full-time GM.
The Oilers are in seventh place in the eight-team Pacific Division and three points out of a playoff position with 32 games left.
Chiarelli took over the Oilers in 2015 after they won the draft lottery and the opportunity to select star Connor McDavid. They've made the playoffs just once in McDavid's three seasons despite him putting up 329 points in 258 games, leading the league in scoring twice and winning the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.
Chiarelli is the second GM to be fired this season. The Philadelphia Flyers dismissed Ron Hextall in November and named Chuck Fletcher his replacement.
Moves made by Chiarelli along the way contributed to the Oilers limiting the first four seasons of McDavid's career. Chiarelli traded 2010 top pick Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils one-for-one for defenseman Adam Larsson. Hall won the Hart last season and led the Devils to the playoffs.
He signed Milan Lucic to a $42 million, six-year contract that now appears to be unmovable. The big winger has 96 points in 214 games with the Oilers, including just five goals this season.
And he traded 2008 first-round pick Jordan Eberle to the New York Islanders for Ryan Strome, who he sent to the New York Rangers earlier this season for Ryan Spooner. The Oilers put Spooner on waivers Monday.
Chiarelli was expected to give the woebegone Oilers steady leadership with McDavid. He won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 but made some of the same mistakes in Boston that he has in Edmonton, most notably a failed trade of Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars that contributed to Chiarelli losing his job.
Edmonton had missed the playoffs in nine consecutive seasons before replacing Craig MacTavish with Chiarelli. A trip to the second round of the playoffs in 2017 looked like the start of a run of success, but the Oilers finished 17 points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference despite McDavid putting up an NHL-best 108 points to win the Art Ross Trophy.
Last summer, Chiarelli did little to improve the roster around McDavid.
The result was 11 losses in their first 20 games that led to the firing of coach Todd McLellan and later a series of reactionary moves. Beyond the Strome for Spooner deal, Chiarelli sent 24-year-old forward Drake Caggiula to Chicago for bottom-pairing defenseman Brandon Manning. This week, he signed goaltender Mikko Koskinen to a three-year contract extension worth $4.5 million a season.___More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
