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Former Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish always placed his core of young stars in the untouchable category at the trade deadline, insisting the organization suffered too much to acquire them in the first place.

Well, there is a new sheriff in town and Peter Chiarelli won’t be handcuffed by sentiment or history or anything else that might prevent him from turning The Nice Guys (on account of where they always finish) into a playoff team.

So everyone and everything, excluding Connor McDavid, of course, is on the table.

Asked specifically about moving one of his $6 million contracts (Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins), Chiarelli said he is absolutely open to a deal. While he doubts a trade of that magnitude is doable at the trade deadline, when playoff teams are capped out and reluctant to shake up to their chemistry, he will be taking calls on the subject prior to the draft.

“For me, major deals are less likely at this time,” he said. “There is more global planning that takes place post-season prior to the draft. Then you have the draft picks, which are alluring to teams. There’s just more activity that way.

“Anything is possible, but I can tell you I’m not really looking at that type of deal now. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be looking at that for the spring and summer.”

That’s a new policy statement for an organization that wouldn’t entertain any sort of trade talk involving the big three. But Chiarelli, who’s never been afraid of the bold move, believes this team might need one. He also has McDavid and in a draft that’s very good at the top this year, will likely be picking in the one-to-four range. So he definitely has room to maneuver when it comes to shaking up the centre of the rebuild.

“I would explore any option,” he said. “I want to improve this team and if we have an excess supply of certain types of players, yes, certainly I would look at it. Having said that, they’re good players and it has to be the right deal.”

As for the some of the players who used to be considered cornerstones, but have played themselves out of it — like Justin Schultz and Nail Yakupov - they’re obviously in play, too. While Chiarelli wouldn’t discuss specific players, he made his intentions clear.

“I’ll look at a lot of different things,” he said. “We’ve got some players who’ve underachieved. We’ve got some players who may need a new venue. Those are the determinations we’ll make between now and the trade deadline.

“If certain players are still around (after Feb. 29) it’s because the deal wasn’t right or we felt there’s a future for them with us, and then we’ll re-visit stuff in the summer.”

Because, needless to say, he is unhappy with the current state of the union.

“I’m disappointed where we are in the standings,” he said. “Just in this last little stretch I felt that our energy level or work ethic has waned a little.

“There was a time this year when we were close in a lot of games and you could feel good about the effort and the structure. Lately there hasn’t been that. That’s a little disconcerting. I don’t like where we are right now.”

The needs are obvious and have been for years: Defence. Size. Grit.

But finding a top pairing defencemen is extremely difficult, and almost impossible in mid-season when teams are pushing for the playoffs

“It’s evident that this is what we’re looking for but they’re not available,” he said, adding his luck might be better in the summer. “I’d also like to get bigger and heavier. And we’ll do that.”

Chiarelli inherited a tangled ball of yarn here that is going to take some time to unravel, but he says it’s not as big as mess as the last few years worth of standings might suggest.

“I knew there would be some heavy lifting here and there still is,” he said. “But to be here and be with the team, to see them practice, meet them, the sky isn’t falling.

“As much as it feel like it is, it’s not falling. There’s the ability to make this team a contending team and it can be in a hurry. But you have to do it right.”

His definition of a hurry?

“In Boston we made the playoffs the following year. That would be ideal.”

rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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