Hey, if your General Manager is not working hard every day to try and make your team better, he should not be your G.M.
But sometimes a bird in the hand in worth two in the bush.
Such is the conundrum right now with Edmonton’s goaltending.
This is an Oilers club that has been to the Stanley Cup Finals back-to-back seasons. Part of the reason they were able to do that was their goaltending tandem. But that was also part of the reason why they pulled up short.
The real problem in between the pipes is that your #1 guy has been inconsistent. At times, Stuart Skinner has been brilliant. He has beaten supposedly superior goalies at the other end of the ice and at critical times. And Stu has lots of valuable Stanley Cup Playoff experience at a relatively young age. Yet at other junctures, Skinner has not appeared up to the very biggest task.
Now, the irony of this off-season: One option to shore the club up at that position is to replace the other guy. Who by the way…has given you everything you should have reasonably hoped for plus some. In real and significant ways, Calvin Pickard has saved this club’s bacon in back-to-back campaigns, both in-season and in the post-season (7-1 this past playoff).
But let’s try to look at this objectively and set aside the Oilers-coloured glasses: Stuart Skinner shows very strong signs of being an NHL “1-A” but just not with near the consistency you require. Maybe he is really a “1-B”. Calvin Pickard is pretty much everything you want in a fine NHL backup, on and off the ice. But his career trajectory suggests he is not quite the “1-B”.
So, if this is not working, what else could be out there? Nothing worth spending the money in in free agency, that’s for sure. And there is no mystery #1 NHL goalie lurking around Europe somewhere (here’s looking at you, Mikko Koskinen). So, you put your pro scouts to work trying to unearth a diamond in the rough in the AHL. That is what you pay them for.
The Oilers had active interest in Artus Silovs in Vancouver. But I am made to understand that the Canucks flat-out refused to deal him to Edmonton. At any price. That is a tough one for Stan Bowman to overcome. It takes two to tango.
Another name commonly mentioned is Michael Dipietro, currently the backup in Boston. Terrific AHL numbers. Talented but small but goalie. Would Boston not keep him and move Joonas Korpisalo, instead of risking waivers on the $812,500 guy?
Could one of those guys eventually prove to be better than Calvin Pickard? Yeah, I think there is a decent good chance of that. But the whole point is for Stuart Skinner to play better or find someone who can. Not get a better backup.
And the problem with Silovs, Dipietro and a handful of other goalies “bubbling under” around the league, is that you do not know if they are NHL quality. If you did, they would have those jobs by now. Face it. It is a gamble.
So, if you take a swing on one of these guys and fail sneak Calvin Pickard through waivers at $1m AAV, the risk is that in an effort to get better, Stan Bowman could inadvertently make things worse.
That is not the end of the world if you are a developing or a rebuilding team.
But it sure can be if you are in your Stanley Cup window.
Now on Bluesky @kurtleavins.bsky.social. Also, find me on Threads @kleavins, Twitter @KurtLeavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and Mastodon at KurtLeavins@mstdn.social.
This article is not AI generated.
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