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Agreeing to be interviewed by Postmedia for the first time since he was let go by the Oilers while on a scouting trip for the Blues that made its way through Ottawa this week, Chiarelli has had a lot of time to reflect on what he could have done better in Edmonton to help the Oilers be successful and the route he’d take if the opportunity to presents itself to be a GM again.

He’s had a lot of time to look back, but Chiarelli admits he should have taken more of a break from the game before settling on his next step with the Oilers. Only a week after being fired by the Bruins in April, 2015, Chiarelli was named to replace Craig MacTavish as GM of the Oilers.

Photo by David_Bloom David Bloom / David Bloom/Postmedia

“I didn’t get a chance to reflect and in hindsight that’s important because you can go back and look at what you did well and what you might have done differently,” Chiarelli said over breakfast Monday at a Westboro eatery. “I had a few job offers right away and my thinking was, ‘Let’s just get back to work’.”

Chiarelli had worked his whole life and the thought of being out of a job didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t deserve to be fired in Boston and there’s a lot of players still on the roster there that he brought in. Edmonton was a whole different set of circumstances and being out of the GM’s chair for a little while has actually given him perspective.

“Now, working with St. Louis and a lot of people I’ve known before, they’re a tight-knit group,” Chiarelli said. “Doug Armstrong is a colleague and a friend and I’m advising him. It gives you a different look because as a GM you’re always at 30,000 feet looking down and this is just different angle and working with different people to see how they do things.