The Edmonton Oilers, MERCIFULLY add Connor Ingram to their goalie room | What it all means

The Edmonton Oilers, MERCIFULLY add Connor Ingram to their goalie room | What it all means

The Edmonton Oilers have a new goalie in the mix, but beggars can’t be choosers. [Music] You are Locked On Oilers, your daily podcast on the Edmonton Oilers, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And welcome to this edition of Locked On Oilers. I am your host, Nick Seraris. This will be my 10th season doing digital hockey content and my fourth as a host here on the Lockdown podcast network. And I want to thank everyone that is making Lockdown Oilers their first listen of the day. Lockdown Oilers is a part of the Lockdown Podcast Network where we’ve got your team covered every single day. And today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and take a chance to win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So on today’s edition of Locked on Wheelers, we’re going to break down Connor Ingram. We’re going to approach this from a few different perspectives. We will start our opening segment will be about narrative, perspective, and just Ingram in a vacuum. Our second segment, we will pivot to talking about his statistics. What are reasonable expectations? And then in our final segment, we will talk about the goalending position at large now as it pertains to the Oilers organizational depth. So after 3 months of me coming on this podcast day after day saying I would like the Oilers to go and get a goalie, but it doesn’t seem like the market is there for them at their price point. Nor does Stan Bowman feel that any of the Flyers are worth it. And no, I don’t mean the Philadelphia Flyers. I mean the dart throws. And make no mistake about it, once you get past guys with starting experience or bellcow goalie experience, you are effectively at a bar spinning with your eyes closed and throwing darts at the wall. Because the goalending position to begin with is throwing darts at the board and hoping you hit the ring you need. Getting a goalie in free agency that does not have a extensive starting track record is borderline impossible to work out. I I spent a lot of the summer hoping that maybe an Alex Lion, an Alexander Gorgiev, potentially a trade, maybe Jake Allen, Jacob Dobishev, there were at least interesting ideas out there. There were guys who even in Akira Schmidt, you know, I I I struggle to think Oilers and Vegas making a trade in division, but being that Vegas has an a goalie in the AHL that has a reasonable chance of being decent, it’s not out of the realm of possibility Aira Schmidt gets pushed. But with so much uncertainty at the position, there was a real question mark here. And after spending the better part of July and August clamoring for anything, I mean, if you go and look at Alexander Gorgv’s numbers from last year with both the Avalanche and the Sharks, that’s not exactly somebody you expect to lead your team to a Stanley Cup. And look, to be fair to Connor Ingram, to the conversation at large here, we all know the deal. We know this is Stuart Skinner’s net until it isn’t. And you can disagree with that. I know frankly I would prefer more of an open competition mindset. It it frustrates me when teams have unproven guys or maybe spot spotty guys I would say up and down inconsistent and they don’t try to push them. And there are two schools of thought on this. You can either say this guy is fragile. If we push him we might break him. The counterpoint to that and at least when it comes to goalies and quarterbacks in football, even if you stage a staged competition where you are putting the odds entirely in favor of the one guy the way the Oilers would if it were an open competition between Pickard and Skinner because Pickard just simply does not have the facilities to be an NHL starter full-time. That would be better than just assuming the net for Skinner. And Connor Ingram flat out is not going to win a competition against Stuart Skinner. And look, I don’t think Calvin I don’t think Connor Ingram is an NHL starting goalie. Just hand up straight up. He’s 28 years old, 99 career starts at the NHL level. We’ll dive into his numbers in the next segment, but and to be fair to Connor Ingram, goalies have a weird trajectory because if you’re not one of the blue chip guys, you know, if you’re not Dustin Wolf, if you’re not I I can’t even say Carter Hart anymore cuz he didn’t pan out. Nor do I want to associate the Oilers with Carter Hart. But that type of goalie where you take the net at 21 22 years old and you are the bellcow starter that is extremely infrequent. I would venture to say you are better off bringing along a goalie on a developmental path. Somebody you feel good about but don’t necessarily know how they’re going to hold up under a full workload. I think when you look at Igor Sha Sturkin, you look at Ilia Sroken, Andre Vaselki, Sergey Babrovski to some extent Jakeer though Ben Bishop was really fading there at the end before Aer took the reigns. You look at Jeremy Swayman behind Tukaras. There is an extensive track record of goalies in tandemss that are developmental that are brought along slowly and Ingram comes from a goalie factory to put it bluntly. going from through that Nashville system and we will talk very much actually about that one series the Predators played against the Avalanche with Ingram and Net when Jussi Sorrowos was hurt. But Sorrowos Soros another example somebody who tended the net behind Pekka Renee took that reign slowly but surely and then the Predators bunkked the convention they did not keep Gav uh Ascarov who was a highly touted amateur goalie who had lit up the AHL and is now with the Sharks organization. somebody I thought that would be worth considering passing the reigns from Jussi Sorrowos down. But as far as narrative, as far as perspective, this is a dart throw. Connor Ingram is not here to push Stuart Skinner for the starter stat. Now, I will say I do think there is a world where Connor Ingram could be an upgrade on what they get from Calvin Pickard. And that is not a knock on Calvin Pickard. And I know if you’re an everydayer, you probably think I don’t like Calvin Pickard. I don’t think he’s very good. We are being reasonable here. Calvin Pickard is a journeyman backup. If you were to drop him into a difficult environment, he would not be able to overcome those circumstances. By virtue of being on the Oilers, he is able to get by with subpar statistics. That is not a knock on him. That is what Calvin Pickard is. He is an NHL journey mean backup. There is nothing wrong with that. He has carved out a very nice living. All of that said, Connor Ingram, though it’s extremely small, has had spurts of decent NHL goalending, and the fact he’s a couple years younger, doesn’t hurt either. Now, again, I I’ve said it like three times in this opening segment because I really want to emphasize it. I do not think Connor Ingram is pushing for Stuart Skinner’s job. I think, and I’ll be very blunt, I think of Connor Ingram is pushing for Stuart Skinner’s job, the Oilers are in deep, deep word I can’t say on this show. This is a player that cleared waiverss without anybody claiming him. And real quick on that note, the Oilers let him pass through waiverss to try and make something work financially to get him at a better number. And they did. Utah retained about 800,000 off of his salary. So they have Ingram at 1.1 million, which means they can bury almost all of that salary in the AHL. We will see if the Oilers attempt to sneak Calvin Picker through waiverss down to the AHL or if Ingram who’s already in the AHL by virtue of clearing starts down there in Bakersfield and works his way and then should Calvin Pickard falter then there’s an argument maybe that you could turn the reigns over to Connor Ingram. But the last point on this note and I got to be quick because we’re coming up against the first break here. I often talk about decision makers in sports using their political and social capital to make decisions. If Stan Bowman really wanted to upgrade this position, he could have made that John Gibson trade back in the summer before the Red Wings did, but he felt he did not have the juice. He felt that financially it would not have worked out for the roster and he took the more tactical decision. And again, we won’t know if he was right or wrong until we actually play these games, but he made this decision. Now, with training camp almost over, only two preseason games remaining, Ingram is almost certainly going to start the year in the AHL. And that gives him runway because if the goalenders get out of the gate, okay, and the team looks decent, doesn’t need them. But if Pickard is faltering, if Skinner gets hurt, then the path to Connor Ingram getting playing time is very straightforward and Stan Bowman looks pretty smart for going out there and getting a guy for draft picks with salary retained. It it’s a good deal here for Stan Bowman to look like, oh, you guys wanted a goalie. You didn’t say who. You didn’t say how. You said get anybody in here that wasn’t Skinner or Pickard. And it’s a little disingenuous when it’s a fringe NHL goalie, but beggars cannot be choosers. We are going to take our first break on today’s edition of Lockdown Oilers. When we come back, we will dive into Connor Ingram’s brief NHL career and what his numbers realistically set as expectations. [Music] The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Because right now, new FanDuel customers can bet just $5 and get $30 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use on the FanDuel app. I love FanDuel because it makes however you want to play easy. If you don’t want to pick the game and you just want to do player props, FanDuel’s got you. If you want to put together a same game parlay to ride with your friends watching a game together, FanDuel’s got you. Or if you’re watching the game and you feel the momentum shifting underfoot, live betting, FanDuel’s got you. The NFL this weekend, the slate on Sunday is not amazing, but I will be keeping my eye on Broncos Eagles because I would like to see if the Broncos are for real. The Eagles four and a half point home favorites. One of my favorite players, your favorite quarterback’s favorite quarterback, Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, heading up to Seattle where the Bucks are three-point road underdogs. So, FanDuel has one question. What are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started for your chance at $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Thank you to everyone who is hanging out on today’s edition of Locked on Oilers as we staring down the start of yet another NHL season. And I’m going to be honest with you guys, I am so happy we have hockey back. It has been a very, very long summer of a lot of questions. And unfortunately, the thing about sports is we can’t get answers sometime for months, maybe even years. But now we can start to put together a picture. And that picture may or may not include Connor Ingram as I look down here at my note sheet. And yes, we we’re we’re fully back in on the legal pad for taking notes. It just it feels better. It looks better. And as much as I like my iPad, I don’t want to feel like an iPad kid. So, handwritten notes definitely the way to go. The the academic research actually supports that that kids who take handwritten notes do better on tests than the ones who type their notes out. But as far as Conor Ingram is concerned, this is not an extensive NHL track record. 28 years old, 99 career NHL starts. Somebody who has never been an NHL starter. And when I say starter, I mean somebody who takes the majority of the starts for their team. Of course, he has starts. As I said, he has 99 career NHL starts. He has come in relief three times. You can make an argument perhaps that he was the starter for the Utah/A Arizona franchise two years ago when he made 50 starts, but his numbers 2.91 goals against 907 save not particularly enticing. And 48 to 40 is a pretty 48 to like 30 something is a pretty even split of starts. So, we could say tandem goalie if we want to be generous to Connor Ingram. But the numbers tell you pretty much all you need to know. And look, in fairness, goalending is such an environmental position. And the teams Connor Ingram has been on are not exactly great environments. He had a cup of coffee with the Nashville Predators as a rookie. He got thumped in a couple of regular season games, an 879 save percentage, a 371 goals against, but not particularly notable. I mean, he was claimed off of waiverss by the Arizona franchise at that time from Nashville who acquired him from the Lightning for I think a seventh or sixth round pick. This is not the track record or the pedigree of somebody who’s going to come in out of nowhere and steal the job. Now, now crazier things have happened. This is the National Hockey League. This is a league where Aiden Hill came out of nowhere and won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights. This is a league where Cam Ward came out of nowhere and won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes. Jordan Bennington, who was in the AHL this season the Bruin, excuse me, the Blues went on to beat the Bruins in the Stanley Cup final. There is a world where weird things can happen. But these numbers, 3.14 goals against average, that would have been bottom 10 in the NHL. League average was 2.81 last year. 902 save percentage, that’s above league average. League average last year was 900 even. But I want to emphasize what I had said before and I want to expand on it a little bit. Goalending is an environmental position. Great goalies are able to supersede or play above their environment. They are able to process and deal with those adverse circumstances so well that they are able to elevate the results of their team. The vast majority of goalies are not on that level. The conversation we have about quarterbacks, elite quarterbacks, can you elevate? Can you make your team better? Who’s the worst quarterback? Who’s the worst goalie you could win with? This is all true. There reaches a certain cut off point where you do not have the horses to compete at the highest level in the football world. That cut off point is right about where Jimmy Garopppolo was with the 49ers a couple years ago. The 49ers could have won that Super Bowl the first time they played the Chiefs with Jimmy G. The 49ers could have beaten the Rams and went to the Super Bowl to play the Bengals the year the the year the Rams beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl. As far as goalies go, Aiden Hill and Jordan Bennington are your cuto off. They are fringe good. I I think most years you would categorize Aiden Hill and Jordan Bennington’s performances as fine. On occasion they can elevate and get to good. Jordan Bennington has had big moments. I would not say his numbers are otherworldly or particularly special, but he was pretty good at four nations. When the Blues won the Stanley Cup, his numbers were solid. That is your cut off point. You at worst can probably be about the 15th or 16th best goalie in the NHL, and your ceiling needs to be at least eighth or ninth. That’s the sweet spot there. And that’s what the Oilers hope Steuart Skinner can get back to. Steuart Skinner’s rookie year in the regular season at least, he was the 11th, the 10th best goalie in the NHL. And the reason the Oilers can’t quit him. And the reason we are having this conversation right now is because they think he is that close. Cuz all it takes is getting one more thing right. All it takes is one more thing breaking your way. And I remember coming out after I forget if it was game three or four of the Stanley Cup final and recording my short for the locked on game night show and standing on the corner outside a bar in the West Village very disappointed that the Oilers lost and saying I don’t think Stuart Skinner is the reason the Oilers lost tonight. But the difference between Steuart Skinner and a good goalie is the Oilers stay in this game longer and it gives them a better chance to win. I’m not even saying he needed to steal them a game. Though if you have an elite goalie, that is something in the back of your mind you’re always hoping for. Tonight might be the night, you know, Sherkin could drop a 43 save shutout. We win even though we got dramatically outplayed. When it comes to Steuart Skinner, you are just trying to tread water. And I’ll give credit where it’s due. Alyssa Howard of Winnipeg Sports Talk made this point and she was talking about defensive defenseman, but I think the point very much applies to Stuart Skinner. He is treading water when he is out there. Now, treading water is not drowning. Treading water, if you’re good at it, you can do it 15 minutes, half hour, hour. If you’re an elite, if you’re a world class swimmer, you can do it for longer. You know, if you’re in the Navy, you can do it for longer. But there does come a tipping point where treading water becomes impossible. Where the lactic acid buildup in your muscles hits you and you can no longer tread water and you start to struggle and the tide is coming and the current is going and you are struggling. You can get by with that for a while. You know the Oilers last year in the regular season though the actual goals for and against especially at even strength were not impressive. the on ice results as far as shots on goal for shots on goal against. They were not asking their goalies to do a whole lot. All they were asking Calvin Pickard and Steuart Skinner to do last year was tread water. Do I think Connor Ingram is capable of treading water at the NHL level? Yes. Candidly, I think Connor Ingram can give you passable NHL goalending in spurts. The problem of course becomes when do those spurts come? Can we get them on a repeatable basis? because then you have a conversation. And that’s why when you’re in this end of the goalie market, when you don’t have a starter starter, you have to talk yourself into things. And candidly, I said this before, I’ll repeat it again before we take our second and final break. If the Oilers season comes down to Connor Ingram starting several games in a row, something has gone horribly wrong. And again, that is not a knock on Connor Ingram, but that would tell you something dire has happened. Whether it’s injuries or goalie performance in front of him being that bad to justify starting. A goalie who has been on waiverss twice in his career at 28 with only 99 career starts. That tells you this guy is on the periphery. That tells you this guy is on the fringes. And there’s nothing wrong with that. These are the types of moves you need to make when you’re desperate. Think about how well Kaspari Kappan worked out for the Oilers claiming him off of waiverss last year. Players that are functional get to waiverss from time to time. goalies more often than the other positions because you can only c you can realistically only carry two and it makes sense salary capwise. I suppose you could carry three, but you would only dress two. So, that’s a different conversation, but for now at least, the numbers are just enticing enough you might be able to talk yourself into something. We are going to take our second and final break on today’s edition of Lockdown Oilers. When we come back, we’ll tie a bow on this Connor Ingram conversation and I’m going to break down what I think are realistic expectations right after this. Thank you to everyone who is hanging out on today’s edition of Lockdown Oilers as we are breaking down the newest goalie to join the Frey and Candidly. And I know I’ve said I’ve been using candidly a lot more recently. I don’t know what I read or watched or listened where that word got into my subconscious the way it has over the last week or so, but I feel that if Connor Ingram makes 10 to 15 starts, that’s probably fine. I think anything more than that in an 82 game season, you’re probably not doing great. In the back of my mind, there’s a world where the goalending just entirely sinks this team and we have an abject disaster. But I think that’s a low-end probability outcome. If we were talking about a standard distribution, I think that’s it closer to the 0 percentile than 50. If you’re not familiar with how standard distributions work, bell curves work, I I could understand the confusion. But if you were to look at a bell curve where it would start out the ends, come to the middle and then dead middle would be the average the mean. So for example, if we were to do height all the way at the high end would be 7’5, 7’6. At the other end, it would be like 4’5, 4’6. In the dead middle, that 50th percentile mean. For men that would be, I think it’s 5’8. For women, I think it’s 5’5, 5’4, something like that. That’s what I’m talking about here. the range of outcomes where the goalending absolutely sinks the season. They miss the playoffs and it’s a disaster. Less than 5%. Really low likelihood of happening. It’s not impossible. Of course, nothing is impossible when it comes to sports. We have seen weird things happen. But I, for one, am happy they claimed a goalie. I should say traded for a goalie. They didn’t claim a waiver. Got to be accurate. But I spent a lot of the summer looking into this camera, talking to you guys, clamoring for someone, just someone to push. Even if we’re pushing Pickard, even if we’re just pushing Calvin Pickard and making his workload a little more challenging, reminding him, hey, you’re not guaranteed this job. That little extra nudge might matter. Maybe not right now, maybe not in December, but maybe in March. And that’s the thing. Goalending is the thick list of mistress, especially when it comes to this tier of goalie. Teams that have the goalending position figured out, they’re not worried about who the third goalie in the organization is. You don’t hear teams that have the elite goalie worrying about, well, who’s the starter in the AHL if someone gets hurt? Who’s the No. If you have one of those bellcow guys, the expectation is they are going to make 55 to 60 starts. They are going to win 35 to 40 of them and they are going to give you an advantage every single night. And that’s the benefit of having the great goalie. Now, I could venture to say that having the great goalie is going to become less valuable as we get into this new salary cap era where players are going to make more. I think paying a goalie top of the market is going to be a challenge because they are not contributing to your offense. You need to be paying for offense. It is the most important thing to buy in hockey. You’re not buying players. You’re buying goals. Yes, defense. Yes, goalending matter, but you have a better chance of outlasting winning if you can generate offense more consistently in the long run. And there might be a world where 3 or 4 years from now when stars are making 23 $24 million per year, if your goalie is only making seven or eight and the great goalies are making 14 or 15, you might be at the advantage there. But until we get clarity on where the market is going pricewise, there’s always going to be an impetus to have the better players. It is kind of the fundamental essence of sports. You have more good players than the other team. You have a better chance to win. Now, it’s why we play the games. You can win with a lesser goalie. As the playoffs the last couple years have demonstrated, the Oilers have beaten teams with that Demco, with Jakeer, with Darcy Keer, with Cam Talbot. They have beaten teams with decent goalies. Goalending is not the most important position when it comes to your prioritization of trying to win a Stanley Cup. It’s close to the top, but it’s probably fifth or sixth. The most important thing is the elite center. The second most important thing is another elite forward. After that, you need a number one defenseman who quarterbacks a power play. Then if you have Shesterkin, Aer, Vaselki, Barra, if you have one of the elite goalies, then you can make an argument. fourth most important. Beyond that, then we start to have a conversation. But I think with the way the Oilers are built, especially with having a full season of Jake Walman, they are not going to be asking their goalenders to do a whole lot here. They are going to be asking their goalies, tread water, keep us in the game, do not lose us the game. That’s all the Oilers ask. You go back and watch an episode from the playoff run two years ago. The mantra for the entirety of the 2024 playoff run was if Steuart Skinner needs to be the guy, the difference between winning and losing, you are going to lose. If Steuart Skinner only needs to be one of the guys on your team, then you have a really good chance of winning. That’s the key. Now, I should mention this because we’ve been talking about depth and the organization and roster construction. This roster has a lot more questions than the team that the Oilers have had each of the past two seasons, especially when it comes to forward. I think the defense on paper, full season of Jake Walman, healthy at home, fingers crossed, another year of Evan Bushard getting better. I think there’s a world where the Others defense is significantly better, especially out of the gate in comparison to last year. That’s your foundation. You get medium range of outcomes from McDavid, Dryidle, Hyman. You get one of You get, excuse me, not Heyman, you get one of Howard, Savois, pop tok looks passable as an NHL center. Okay, you have enough there that goalie is going to not be a huge factor until you get deep in the playoffs because then everybody’s got good teams. You get to a conference final, it’s really few and far between to get a weak opponent. Occasionally something funky happens. Team gets hot at the right time. One player goes nuclear, carries a team that far. The Rangers, which Sturkin comes to mind the two times they’ve made the conference finals with him. But by and large, I don’t think Connor Ingram himself is going to have a particularly big impact on whether or not the Oilers win the Stanley Cup this upcoming year. I don’t think it hurts. At the very least, the Oilers have introduced another variable to consider. They have to worry about the low-end range of outcomes where if it gets to Connor Ingram, how dire things are. But this team has enough that if it gets to Connor Ingram for a week, maybe a week and a half, they should be able to get by. Anything more than that, they’re in deep, deep word, I can’t say on this show. But Connor Ingram is better than not having a third goalie at all. That will do it for today’s edition of Locked on Oilers. Thank you so much to everybody who made Locked on Oilers their first listen of the day. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. If you’re listening on Apple or Spotify, please give the show a fivestar review. If you’re watching over on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. Let me know, are you do you care that the Oilers traded for Conor Ingram? I will talk to you guys tomorrow. But before then, a be sure to check out locked on NHL and locked on NHL game night ahead of the start of the season to get ramped up for hockey. Everyone have a good one. I will talk to you guys real soon. Let’s go Oilers.

The Edmonton Oilers finally addressed their goalie question adding Connor Ingram from the Utah Mammoth. While Ingram has a small NHL track record, he has the capacity to start games should the Oilers run into trouble. Host Nick Zararis explores the narratives surrounding the Oilers goalie room, Ingram’s career track record and puts the trade into perspective.

0:00 Intro: Oilers acquire new goalie Connor Ingram

5:38 Ingram’s background and goalie development paths

11:16 Analyzing Ingram’s NHL stats and performance

16:54 Skinner’s role and goaltending expectations

22:30 Goalie value in new salary cap era

27:06 Ingram’s potential impact on Oilers’ season

The Edmonton Oilers, Mercifully add Connor Ingram to their goalie room | What it all means
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.
FanDuel
Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOOilers?sid=YouTube

Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL

#NHL #Oilers #EdmontonOilers