Chiarelli, who represented the Boston Bruins in 2010 when they drafted second after acquiring the Toronto Maple Leafs pick, did not have the same luck this year. Edmonton had the second-best odds to win the first pick but fell to fourth.
Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi are the consensus top-three picks of the 2016 draft, which will be held in Buffalo on June 24-25.
"There are three players that are almost ready-made, if not ready-made to play, but ... there are some real good players after that," Chiarelli said.
"When you reconcile the odds, our best odds for us was to end up [picking] at [No.] 3. I was setting us up to end up at 3, so it was a little disappointing to end up at 4."
If Chiarelli does not trade the No. 4 pick, he said he has followed forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matthew Tkachuk closely.
"[Tkachuk] is such a cerebral player and a gritty, heavy player. He's always around the net. He would be a really good fit," Chiarelli said. "Dubois, same thing. He's big and strong; your prototypical power forward. He can play center or wing and can really shoot the puck."
