Every signing in an NHL organization is significant, especially in the salary cap era of the NHL, where bad contracts haunt a team. Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman has made a number of iffy such signings, such as the two-year deal for Andrew Mangiapane, the seven-year deal for Trent Frederic and the trade for goalie Tristan Jarry, who has two years left on a pricey contract.
As much as each of those deals has come to be criticized, I can at least see a rational reason Bowman made each one. Essentially, each of Frederic, Mangiapane and Jarry had been good NHLers in the past, none of them were too old, so Bowman could have a reasonable expectation that they might flourish in Edmonton surrounded by so much talent here.
But the one Bowman signing I don’t get — his most bizarre move as Oilers GM — was signing 31-year-old goalie Matt Tomkins to a two-year, two-way deal at $775,000 per year in the NHL, $400,000 per in the AHL.
No sense at the time, less sense now
At the time it was made last July 1, it seemed like a small and uneventful signing for the Oilers, but the Tomkins contract made no sense at the time and makes less sense now. It disrupted the development of goalies in the Oilers farm system last year and threatens to do the same this coming year.
None of this is to say that Tomkins wasn’t a valuable member of the Bakersfield Condors last year. He was just that. He played many good games. He’s reportedly an excellent teammate. ‘
But Edmonton is a franchise with well-known and significant goalie issues. It was last year when Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard were in net for the Oilers. It continued to be an issue this year when Tristan Jarry and Connor Ingram took over.
The main issue with Tomkins is that it’s difficult to imagine how Bowman ever saw him as part of the solution. How could a 31-year-old career AHL back-up be expected to step up and help out in Edmonton this year if Skinner and/or Pickard failed to get it done?
And how will Tomkins, soon to be 32, be any more ready next season if Edmonton should be in sudden need of a goalie?
The question for Bowman is: when Edmonton’s GM decided to let go of Oilers prospect goalie Olivier Rodrigue last June, why did he not bring in a much younger and more promising goalie, one with a real chance to grow and push Skinner and Pickard for playing time in Edmonton?
Failing that, why didn’t he reserve his Bakersfield spots this past season for three promising young goalies, Samuel Jonsson, Nathaniel Day and Connor Ungar, so they could work on their games at the highest level of minor pro competition and perhaps be ready should Edmonton need them?
If you think my questions are over-the-top, consider that the AHL is set up as a developmental league for young pro prospects. And that’s how it worked with most NHL organizations last year. They gave prospect goalies the most games. Out of the Top 50 AHL goalies last year only 10 of them were over the age of 27.
Six of those ten goalies in this over-27 group were on one-way NHL contracts, meaning they had enough value on the market to demand such contracts and also that their organizations saw them as credible bets to make the NHL team.
Of the other four of those ten older AHL goalies, only Tomkins was over the age of 30 at the start of the AHL season, making him the most distant of the 50 top AHL goalies when it comes to being an NHL prospect.
Tomkins played 42 regular season and three playoff games for Bakersfield last season. No other goalie played more than 13 games.
No other team invested so much focus and playing time on a non-prospect goalie as did the Oilers with Tomkins.
AHL goalies
I have no explanation for this. It became all the more baffling as the season progressed and two young goalies, Connor Ungar and Samuel Jonsson, went on dazzling runs of play in the ECHL.
One of those two might well have made Bakersfield out of training camp last year, but Bowman blocked that as well, this time with an entirely sharp and rational move, bringing in Connor Ingram from Utah on a bargain one-year deal. Unlike Tomkins, Ingram was a proven NHLer. He had been in the top half of NHL goalies for a few years with the Arizona Coyotes.
Ungar got his chance in Bakersfield when Ingram was called up to Edmonton just before Christmas. For more than a month, Ungar dazzled in Bakersfield and ended up with highest save percentage of any Condors goalie. He was .923 in 13 games compared to .904 in 43 games for Tomkins.
But when Calvin Pickard was sent to the minors after the 2026 Olympics, Ungar got bumped back to the ECHL, not Tomkins.
This coming year, Edmonton is again in the market for a goalie, with rumours the team may trade for a strong AHL goalie. Maybe Edmonton wouldn’t have to make such a trade if it had gone with Ungar or Jonsson or both all year last season in the AHL. Maybe Edmonton would now know if one of them is close to being NHL-ready.
But not to be. Tomkins blocked them so we don’t know just how strong Ungar or Jonsson are over a full season of AHL play.
Of course, at the NHL level Edmonton already has Tristan Jarry with two years left on his deal. Ingram is an unrestricted free agent. If Edmonton trades for a promising goalie, where does that leave Ingram? Will he get bumped out of Edmonton after thoroughly out-playing Jarry this year.
And in Bakersfield, will Edmonton go with Ungar and Jonsson this year? Tomkins has one more year on his deal. Will he continue to block them?
It all adds up to a FUBAR goalie situation in Edmonton just now where more promising goalies are being blocked by less promising ones, with the Tomkins contract smack in the middle of the mess.
That’s why I call the Tomkins’ deal Bowman’s most bizarre contracts. It makes no sense to me. And it’s helped make a mess of things.
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