The Edmonton Oilers on Monday fired head amateur scout Stu MacGregor as well as four other members of the amateur and professional scouting department.
"We have to get better drafting and developing players," Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli said while speaking with the media.
MacGregor had been director of amateur scouting since 2007, and a scout for the Oilers since 2000.
"I wanted to lean out the staff a bit, I wanted to reposition some people in duties, and these are hard decisions that we have to make; that I had to make," Chiarelli said.