{"id":866109,"date":"2026-08-24T00:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/866109\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T00:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:50:11","slug":"free-agent-profile-connor-ingram-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/866109\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Agent Profile: Connor Ingram \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

After losing his roster spot with the Utah Mammoth,\u00a0Connor Ingram<\/a>\u00a0was hopeful that a change of scenery to the Edmonton Oilers would help get his career back on track.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Unfortunately, that wasn\u2019t the case for the first half of the year. Playing with the AHL\u2019s Bakersfield Condors, Ingram had a disastrous start to his tenure in the Oilers organization. He managed a 4-5-2 record in 11 starts with a .856 SV% and 4.04 GAA.<\/p>\n

Still, because of the lackluster goaltending in Edmonton and an injury to newly acquired Tristan Jarry<\/a>, Ingram earned a call-up to the Oilers in late December. He was fairly streaky, which wasn\u2019t an uncommon theme from between the pipes for Edmonton last season. He finished with a 16-10-3 record, a .899 SV% and 2.60 GAA.<\/p>\n

Even though he didn\u2019t have the best numbers in the league, he was the most stable netminder the Oilers had. He was named the team\u2019s starter for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, finishing with a .876 SV% as Edmonton was eliminated by the Anaheim Ducks.<\/p>\n

Stats<\/p>\n

2025-26: 32 GP, 16 W, 10 L, 3 OT\/SOL, 686 saves, 77 GA, .899 SV%, 2.60 GAA, 2.7 GSAA
Career:\u00a0134 GP, 55 W, 54 L, 18 OT\/SOL, 3,454 saves, 379 GA, .901 SV%, 3.01 GAA, -1.8 GSAA<\/p>\n

Potential Suitors<\/p>\n

It was always going to be difficult for Ingram to find anything beyond a third-string role on the free agent market. It was always going to be best to wait as long as possible before the regular season began, hoping a starting or backup netminder would get injured, thus opening up a potential role.<\/p>\n

In bittersweet fashion, that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened for Ingram. A few days ago, it was announced<\/a> that Columbus Blue Jackets netminder Elvis\u00a0<\/a>Merz\u013cikins<\/a>\u00a0would\u00a0be out indefinitely following shoulder surgery.<\/p>\n

If Ingram wants a backup role, the Blue Jackets are his only realistic option. Columbus signed Pheonix Copley<\/a> as a third-string option this summer, but Ingram would be an improvement with more recent NHL experience.<\/p>\n

Projected Contract<\/p>\n

This is where the news gets less optimistic for Ingram. Yes, the Blue Jackets currently have approximately $12MM in salary cap space, but they still need to sign RFA center Adam Fantilli, at least for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

Even if the Blue Jackets eventually place Merz\u013cikins on the long-term injured reserve, it won\u2019t create enough space to give Ingram anything meaningful. Odds are, if Ingram is pursued by Columbus as a short-term stopgap, it won\u2019t be for much more than the league minimum.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After losing his roster spot with the Utah Mammoth,\u00a0Connor Ingram\u00a0was hopeful that a change of scenery to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[231142,64,63,78067,575,11477,85],"class_list":["post-866109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-free-agency","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-connor-ingram","tag-nhl","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}