{"id":506446,"date":"2026-03-16T17:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/506446\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:29:19","slug":"desperate-oilers-give-connor-ingram-the-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/506446\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate Oilers give Connor Ingram the net"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> pushed the goaltending panic button on Dec. 12, shipping the disappointing Stuart Skinner<\/a> to Pittsburgh (along with defenceman Brett Kulak<\/a> and a second-round pick) in exchange for Tristan Jarry<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The shakeup at the position was a gamble, but Skinner\u2019s performance had been so underwhelming that it was cause for concern. Couple that with the fact that Edmonton\u2019s Stanley Cup contention window is now, and the Oilers couldn\u2019t afford to sit on their hands. <\/p>\n

The challenge for general manager Stan Bowman and Edmonton\u2019s front office: goaltenders are scarcely available to begin with, especially those who perform at the NHL level. Acquiring a goaltender mid-season usually means finding a potential reclamation project and hoping a change in environment can spur a reversal in play. That\u2019s how Edmonton landed on Jarry.<\/p>\n

But the trade, at least so far, has not worked out for the Oilers. <\/p>\n

Not only has Jarry looked shockingly bad in 15 starts with his new team, Skinner has played exceptionally well in Pittsburgh in a tandem with Arturs Silovs<\/a>. The change in environment has been a performance tailwind for Skinner; for Jarry, it\u2019s meant a continuance of poor play that had Penguins fans talking about a contract buyout before his December trade:<\/p>\n

\"\"Yost: Penguins vs. Oilers goaltending (TSN) <\/p>\n

Skinner\u2019s save percentage is only marginally up, but he\u2019s also been under siege in Pittsburgh. It may be hard to believe, considering the state of the Oilers defence, but the shot profile Skinner has faced in Pittsburgh has been slightly more difficult than what he dealt with in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

But Jarry is an entirely different story. His save percentage has slipped more than five percentage points since being dealt from Pittsburgh, and he\u2019s more than six goals worse than a replacement-level goaltender would have performed in the same situation in Edmonton, based on the shot profile faced. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s alarmingly poor \u2013 in fact, only St. Louis\u2019 Jordan Binnington<\/a> (-16 goals saved versus expected) and Ottawa\u2019s Leevi Merilainen (-14 goals saved versus expected) have shown worse this season.<\/p>\n

Jarry\u2019s play has been so poor that head coach Kris Knoblauch decided to make a change to the goaltender depth chart over the weekend, announcing that Connor Ingram<\/a> would receive the majority of the starts down the stretch as the Oilers chase down a playoff berth. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge bet on a journeyman goalie like Ingram; the 28-year-old did put together a nice season with the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes in 2023-24 (90.7 per cent stop rate), but he doesn\u2019t exactly have the resume of a goalie you go all-in on with a Stanley Cup-contending team. But that may speak to just how disappointing Jarry has been more than anything else.<\/p>\n

Knoblauch\u2019s made his coaching decision for now, but a broader roster decision is around the corner. The Oilers had Skinner on an expiring deal (and on a cheaper cap hit, at $2.6 million AAV); they now have a struggling Jarry on a $5.4 million AAV cap hit through the 2027-28 season. So, if Jarry\u2019s game can\u2019t be rediscovered in Edmonton soon, the Oilers have a bigger contract problem on their hands to solve.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old saying at NASA: \u201cThere is no problem so bad you can\u2019t make it worse.\u201d I fear Edmonton did just that by swapping Skinner for Jarry, and if Ingram does solidify himself as the starter over the next month of the season, the Oilers are going to need to figure out what to do with Jarry and his contract in a hurry.<\/p>\n

Data via Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com, Evolving Hockey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers pushed the goaltending panic button on Dec. 12, shipping the disappointing Stuart Skinner to Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,33539,32610,5,4,32612,42105],"class_list":{"0":"post-506446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-connor-ingram-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478971","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-22","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-stuart-skinner-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479973","14":"tag-tristan-jarry-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477465"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116240041735441190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}