LeafGm
Well-known member
Chia's first trade in Edmonton was sending a 1st and a 2nd to the Isles for Griifin Reinhart. Islanders drafted Barzal with the 1st. Thank you very much.
It’s not even like this is one of those “stupid in hindsight”. It was already painfully obvious by that point that Reinhart was either a bust, or a low-upside prospect.
And Barzal was the consensus BPA with obvious high-end skill who had slipped hilariously below his pre-draft rankings.
In some alternate universe, there’s an Oilers team that’s spent the last six seasons with a core group up front of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Mathew Barzal, Taylor Hall & Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. All Chia had to do to have that team was nothing, pretty much.