from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,

... That’s a lot of talk about moving a player like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins from a lot of Oilers insiders, enough for me to think that there’s some fire to this smoke.

But in a 10-minute press conference today, Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli played down such rumours.

• Chiarelli said he’s disappointed with the team but has seen progress with the structure in terms of breaking out of Edmonton’s end and defending the neutral zone. “Obviously I don’t like our record. We’ve had a number of one goal losses and I think there’s a certain attitude and way to play to win those games and we don’t have it. I haven’t seen progression there.”
• “There’s been some disappointing performances,” Chiarelli said and later added the Carolina game was really disappointing “and that involves performances from players who should be better.”
• Need to make a move? “No, the last thing you want to do is just to go out and force a move to shake things up. I’m not averse to making moves and I’ve had a lot of conversations in the last two weeks. It doesn’t mean we won’t make a move, but to think, ‘Hey, I’ve got make a move to shake things up,’ I think that’s the wrong way to approach it. I have to take a global perspective on this thing.”

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