from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

The idea projected and promoted here that Connor McDavid would make the Edmonton Oilers significantly better long before he ever arrived on the ice in Edmonton, didn’t take long to kick in.

When Peter Chiarelli is introduced at a press conference Friday in Edmonton as the new head of Hockey Operations under new Oilers Entertainment Group CEO Bob Nicholson, it will deliver a message to the entire hockey world it’s finally the start of a brand new era of Oilers hockey.

The Oilers, after missing the playoffs nine years in a row, are undeniably having their best playoff years since they last won the Stanley Cup.

One of the first questions Chiarelli will no doubt be asked at the press conference is if he’d have made the move if the bingo balls hadn’t placed the next Wayne Gretzky in the same city where the last one played the greatest years of his career.

Maybe the recently fired Boston Bruins general manager might say there’s far more here than the kid expected to become the best players in the league within three or four years. Maybe he’ll say he’d have probably taken the job anyway. But if he’s honest about it, I suspect he’ll say McDavid made it a no brainer.

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