Jordan Eberle has the support of Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli, despite being held without a goal in 13 playoff games this spring.

Eberle was called out by head coach Todd McLellan for not doing enough during the Oilers' playoff run, but Chiarelli is willing to cut the winger some slack.

"(He's) a very good offensive player and (I'm) happy to have him on our team," Chiarelli told TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

Futher to that, Chiarelli believes Eberle's playoff performance was unfairly characterized, and he doesn't feel the need to defend the player in the face of that.

Still, the GM did take some time to expand.

"I think outside of two players he probably had the most positive touches of the puck on our team," Chiarelli said. "I really don't feel the need to defend him, he didn't have a great playoffs - he didn't have a good playoffs - but he did a lot of things that we expected of him. He just didn't have the offence that we expected him to have in the playoffs. What he does, he creates space with his touches and I thought he played well."

Eberle made 507 regular-season appearances with the Oilers before finally getting a taste of the postseason, averaging 27 goals per every 82 games during that time. Chiarelli compared Eberle's playoff debut to that of Pavel Datsyuk, who registered three goals and six points in 21 games back in 2002. The difference here, though, is that Eberle is 27, whereas Datsyuk was only 22 at that time.

Eberle remains under contract with the Oilers for two more seasons at a cap hit of $6 million annually.

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