This in from NHL insiders Elliotte Friedman, Pierre Lebrun and Bob Stauffer, all three of them on Stauffer’s show Oilers Now pooh-poohing the notion that Oilers GM Stan Bowman will be trading for a goallie any time soon.

Said Stauffer, referring to Avs GM Chris MacFarland who last year traded for two useful goalies in Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood: “A lot of people look to goaltending, but I don’t think you’re going to pull a Chris McFarland rabbit out of a hat like he did last year.”

And: “We have people saying, ‘You Oilers must trade for a goalie.’ I have the perception that there aren’t a lot of teams looking to offload anybody right now.”

Said Lebrun: “The Oilers have made a lot of moves here, they’re chasing it the last few years. So it’s not like you just pick up the phone if you’re Stan Bowman and start making all these moves. I mean, this team is, I don’t want to say you’re out of moves. You’re never out of moves. But they’ve traded away a lot of assets to already knock at the door… So what’s the play here? And I struggle to see what it is, honestly.

Lebrun continued: “Like, who are you trading for?… I’m not against the idea, but who’s available that’s a tangible upgrade? I mean, I’m all for it, but as I like to say when people say that, ‘Who is that guy? Tell me.’”

Friedman said he thinks the Oilers have looked at the goalie market and found no better bet right now than Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard, all things considered.

“If you listen to Stan Bowman talk, he talks about things like Skinner’s cap hit, he talks about things like acquisition cost, he talks about things like who’s really available and are they better. And so what that says to me, in his own way, Bowman is letting everybody know that they keep an eye on all this, and they look at things like what it’s going to cost to get someone, what the effect it will have on their cap situation, is there someone who’s appreciably better. And his argument, whether or not you agree with it, his argument is, ‘No, there is not anybody else better right now.’

Friedman continued: “Bowman leaves you enough clues that you should understand what he’s saying and that is for the trades that he thinks he can make for a goalie, he doesn’t think it’s worth it… It’s pretty obvious to me that he’s never seen something that he thought was better than what they had.”

My take

1. There’s massive pressure from parts of the Oilers fanbase and media for Bowman to act and bring in a new goalie. Stauffer and the other insiders say this isn’t going to happen any time soon, even as Skinner ranks 41st out of 60 regular NHL goalies in save percentage.

It is what it is. We can all gnash our teeth and bang our heads against the wall, but the Oilers are putting out a clear message that there’s nothing doing right now in the goalie trade department.

2. Skinner has six wins in 13 games and a save percentage of .889. He’s been as mediocre as the team in front of him.

With no trade forthcoming, Edmonton’s best bet for the defence in front of Skinner to improve markedly. The play of the d-men has crashed from last season, but this is a solid bunch of d-men and they should pick it up. If they don’t pick it up, and if Skinner doesn’t, and if Bowman really can’t trade for a better goalie, this team is going nowhere fast.

But I suspect there are moves to be made before the “going nowhere fast” option is accepted in Edmonton.

At the Cult of Hockey

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