Peter Chiarelli will be back for a fourth season as general manager of the Edmonton Oilers.

Oilers Entertainment Group CEO and Vice Chair Bob Nicholson made the announcement on Thursday, five days after the Oilers finished a disappointing campaign at 36-40-6.

Nicholson said the entire organization was under review, but said that Chiarelli will be returning for the 2018-19 season. Nicholson did not speak for head coach Todd McLellan, noting he is under review by Chiarelli. 

As for expectations moving forward, Nicholson said the team has a single focus.

"We have one goal and that is to make sure we're back in the playoffs next year," Nicholson said.

After a breakthrough season in 2016-17 in which Connor McDavid won the Hart Trophy and the team made the playoffs for the first time since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2006, the team regressed this season, missing the playoffs by 17 points.

Chiarelli has made a series of moves to reshape the franchise to mixed results.

The biggest acquisition of Chiarelli’s tenure was that of McDavid through the draft lottery. Arguably the game’s best player, McDavid will again garner Hart votes this season after a campaign that saw the 21-year-old centre record 41 goals and 67 assists.

While McDavid is an unbridled success, Chiarelli’s other decisions have not paid dividends.

He traded Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils in June of 2016 for defenceman Adam Larsson. While Larsson has been a serviceable performer for the Oilers, Hall has blossomed into a star for the Devils, scoring 39 goals and adding 54 assists this season. Hall could very well be nominated for the Hart Trophy this season alongside former teammate McDavid at a time when the Oilers have sorely needed production on the wing.

The trade of Jordan Eberle to the New York Islanders also did not work out as planned. The 27-year-old winger was dealt following a postseason in which he only tallied two points in 13 games in exchange for Ryan Strome. Eberle posted his sixth straight season of 20 or more goals, while Strome struggled and found himself a healthy scratch on occasion this season.

Big-ticket signings did not pan out for Chiarelli, either. After a season with 23 goals in the first year of a seven-year, $42 million deal with the Oilers including record production on the power play, Milan Lucic’s sophomore campaign was a poor one. The 31-year-old winger went 29 games without scoring a goal between December and March and found himself with the worst 5-on-5 production numbers of his 11-year career.

Chiarelli joined the Oilers in 2015 after eight seasons as the GM of the Boston Bruins and winning the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Chiarelli, 53, broke into the NHL in 1999 as an assistant GM with the Ottawa Senators, following years working as a player agent.