The Edmonton Oilers’ season has slowly turned into a referendum on goaltending. The tension has now spilled beyond on-ice performance and into the front office and the locker room. According to multiple insiders, the Oilers were prepared to take decisive action on their struggling crease until the players themselves stepped in and stopped it.

The first report came from Frank Seravalli’s who revealed that Edmonton had planned to call up Connor Ingram in a move that would have effectively pushed Calvin Pickard out of the NHL picture. At least temporarily. The intention was clear that the team wanted a change but the players vetoed it.

Seravalli described it plainly sharing that Pickard’s popularity inside the room is so high that Edmonton’s top leaders “went to bat for him.”

“I think the Oilers wanted to make a change… but Calvin Pickard is such an immensely popular player in that locker room that their top players went to bat for him… That was the message they wanted to deliver,” the Insider reported.

It wasn’t the first time this season that the roster stepped between management and the goaltending position. Elliotte Friedman previously reported that Pickard had earned similar loyalty earlier in the year. The room loves him, trusts him and feels responsible for defending him.

And this is where the emotional heart of the issue collides head-on with performance.

Calvin Pickard’s struggles undercut the sentimentality

There is no polite way to frame it. Pickard has been one of the least effective goaltenders in the NHL this season. His .847 save percentage puts him near the absolute bottom of league qualifying goalies.

In a year when league-wide save percentages have dropped to .896, the lowest since 1993–94, Edmonton still finds itself below the new low-water mark with both of its goalies. Stuart Skinner sits at .878, Pickard at .851—both beneath a league average that has already cratered.

The Oilers’ skaters can love Pickard as much as they like. They can rally around him, and protect him emotionally. But they can’t lower his goals-against, and they can’t wish away the statistical reality.

Edmonton is trying to win a Stanley Cup. And friendship, for all its value, has never been a goaltending metric.

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Why upgrading in goal feels far-fetched

Even if the Oilers wanted to make a change and all indications are that management does, the cap situation is one of the tightest in the NHL. As analyst David Pagnotta pointed out, the team has roughly $159K in cap space. That is barely enough to recall a league-minimum rookie, never mind to acquire a legitimate starter.

Pagnotta summarized the bind, saying:

“They don’t have the cap space for a quick fix. If Skinner’s the guy going out, it’s $2.6M, but for an impact goalie, you’re looking at $5M plus.”

Even if Edmonton found the right partner, salary-retention adds an entirely different cost. Third-party retention which allows a team to retain up to 75% of a contract’s AAV, almost always requires extra draft capital which is usually a premium pick or a meaningful prospect.

The Oilers already have a thin prospect pool. Their draft capital isn’t much better. Every dollar the team lacks translates into assets that must be sacrificed.

This is the real reason GM Stan Bowman has been cautious. The math does not favour aggression. To upgrade their goaltending, Edmonton must either pay a massive premium, or move a core player, or accept a lower-tier goalie who may not actually fix the problem.

That is not a menu of pleasant options.

Skinner and Pickard to decide the future “next month”

On OilersNow, Bob Stauffer voiced the blunt truth that the next month of gameplay will likely determine Bowman’s plan.

“Ultimately the play of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard over the next month is going to decide the course of action.”

This might sound obvious but the significance runs fairly deep.

If Skinner stabilizes and Pickard becomes at least dependable in a tandem role, Bowman may be able to justify standing pat even if it is more out of necessity than preference.

If they falter? Edmonton’s front office risks being forced into a corner potentially sacrificing assets they cannot afford to lose simply because the alternative in wasting another season of McDavid and Draisaitl is even worse.

Craig MacTavish not optimistic with current goalie tandem

Former Oilers GM Craig MacTavish joined Stauffer and delivered the bluntest assessment anyone has given the Oilers this year:

“It’d be hard to go in the playoffs with Stu… I like him, he’s a local kid, but something needs to be done. If you have to ask the question, is your goaltending good enough? You know the answer.”

MacTavish cut to the core of the matter. The moment an organization begins debating if its goaltending is sufficient, the answer is already “no.”

In Edmonton, that debate has raged for months.

There is a genuine desire inside and outside the roster for Skinner to take the next step. He’s young, he’s hardworking, he’s homegrown and he’s easy to root for. You can feel it in Oil Country and everyone wants him to succeed.

But sentiment and reality are rarely aligned in this sport.

The Wallstedt shadow [sigh*]

The anxiety around the crease has also rekindled a familiar frustration in Edmonton: the decision to pass on Jesper Wallstedt in the 2021 draft.

Wallstedt, regarded at the time as the top goaltending prospect available, represented exactly the type of future-proof solution teams search years for. Edmonton opted not to take him and that decision lingers in conversations around the franchise.

But that history lesson doesn’t solve the present. The Oilers can only deal with the consequences of never finding the long-term answer at the position.

Skinner’s season has been uneven, at times admirable, at times deeply concerning. The inconsistency is what haunts the front office.

Pickard is beloved. Skinner is respected. Both are trying. The locker room is unified behind them.

The Oilers meanwhile need consistent competence and even that has been difficult to secure.

If Skinner and Pickard deliver over the next month, Bowman can hold the line.

If they don’t, he will have no choice but to pay the premium. And the cost, one way or another, will be heavy.

Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire

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