The Edmonton Oilers have once again found themselves in the middle of a slow start. The truth is that they aren’t even in that big of a pickle—the Oilers are only two points out of a playoff spot and there are still 118 points on the table. However, for a team that has made the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row, a little more is expected than just okay.

This early season lethargy is by no means uncommon for the Oilers, they have had similar starts, much worse starts actually in recent memory. Whether I am suffering from recency bias or that I am diagnosing things correctly, this start feels worse than the others. The 8–3 loss to the Dallas Stars was particularly demoralizing. Not even one player on the team, except maybe Connor Clattenburg, looked like they had even the slightest inclination to win that game. It was an awful performance.

While I am inclined to believe that the goalies suffer a lot of blame that partially or wholly belongs to the defencemen and forwards, it is also the case that Edmonton needs better goaltending. Dallas scored eight goals on 30 shots in that game.

The McDavid era has been marked by fantastic highs and lows, by victory and disappointment, by outstanding offence, but also by inconsistent goaltending. Since 2015, seven goalies have spent significant time with the Oilers and while there were some encouraging stretches, they never really lasted much longer than one season.

Here is the history of Edmonton goalies in the McDavid era:

Cam Talbot

Just as an interesting fact, the 2014–15 season, one year before the arrival of McDavid, Ben Scrivens was backed up by Viktor Fasth, who would be a good answer to the question, “Who’s the most random NHL player of all time?”

In year one, the Oilers were backstopped by Cam Talbot, newly acquired from the New York Rangers, who was backed up by Anders Nilsson and later Laurent Brossoit. Talbot put up a very solid .917 Sv%, 2.55 GAA while Nilsson was below average with a .901, 3.14. The following summer he was signed to a three-year, $12.5M contract.

The year after was the best goaltending McDavid has ever seen with the Oilers. Cam Talbot played an astounding 73 games with a .919 Sv% and a 2.39 GAA, At that point, he looks like a long-term option in net. I would be astounded to see a goalie start that many games these days. Honestly, can you imagine what this team could have done with that kind of goaltending these last three years? Laurent Brossoit and Jonas Gustavsson made up the rest of the games.

In the next two years Talbot slowed down though, and eventually lost the starter’s role to Mikko Koskinen, who was signed out of the KHL. At this point, the Oilers should have been trying hard to draft a goalie. Anthony Stolarz also came and went during this time.

Mike Smith

In 2019–20 Mike Smith was signed and he and Koskinen shared the net to mediocre success. Come the pandemic year, Mike Smith put up a great year with a .923 Sv% and 2.31 GAA. The Oilers may have thought they had another solution in net, but for the fact that Smith was already 38 years old. Smith played solidly for the rest of his career, but retired with lingering injuries.

It was in this era that the Oilers GM Ken Holland made a big mistake. In the 2021 NHL draft, the Oilers held the 20th overall pick but traded down with the Minnesota Wild to the 22nd pick, taking Xavier Bourgault, who is no longer on the team. With the 20th pick, the Wild selected Jesper Wallstedt who currently leads the league in Sv% and has three shutouts in eight games.

Stuart Skinner

Stuart Skinner took over the starter role in 2022–23 and has held onto it ever since. He started solid with a .914 Sv% and a 2.75 GAA, but again has slowly gotten worse over time until now he’s at .878 Sv% and 3.18 GAA.

It’s easy to argue that Skinner has backstopped the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final the last two years, but you couldn’t say they made it on the back of their goaltending, nor have his stats been spectacular in the playoffs themselves.

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The Oilers typical half measures

A GM’s job in the salary cap era is a three-way balancing act, “how do I properly pay my goalies, defence, and forwards such that I can create the best possible team”? Essentially ever since Draisaitl signed his $8.5M AAV contract for the 2017–18 season and McDavid his $12.5M AAV contract for the 2018–19 season, the Oilers have been under cap stress, trying to ratchet up the quality of the offence, defence, and goaltending one half measure at a time.

Some of those that might be considered half measures have worked out extremely well for the Oilers, Zach Hyman is the prime example. Before coming to the Oilers his most productive season was 41 points, now his career high is 83 points.

Far more have turned out poorly: Jack Campbell, Mike Smith, Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Tyson Barrie, James Neil, and Kyle Turris are all good examples. It’s the lack of a consistent goalie that we keep coming back to year after year though. A poor forward signing can be hidden amongst the 11 other forwards, but a team only has two goalies, only one on the ice, and he is the last line of defence. If he screws up, there’s no one behind him to fix his mistake.

I believe GMs in Edmonton have suffered from trying to get things done too quickly. After McDavid was signed they had seven straight years of McDavid and Draisaitl locked up, the absolute first priority in the draft should have been goaltending. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 and Skinner had been drafted by then, but at that point would not have been considered an extremely promising prospect, he should not have been looked at as the solution at that point.

Edmonton has continually found themselves in a spot where there are either no proven good goalies on the market or they can’t afford the rare ones who do pop up. It is far easier to draft and then make room than it is to sign or trade for someone. In the McDavid era, the Oilers have not taken a goalie higher than 62nd overall. Jake Oettinger, Spencer Knight, and Jesper Wallstedt are all goalies taken not long after Edmonton’s first pick in their respective draft years.

Now you look at this team and say, “we need a goalie right now, we don’t have time to draft and cultivate a goalie.” Whether McDavid does or does not sign doesn’t change the fact they need a goalie, and if you don’t draft a goalie soon this will still be what we’re talking about five years from now.

Photo by Derek Cain/Icon Sportswire

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