{"id":505820,"date":"2026-02-28T19:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505820\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T19:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:19:19","slug":"edmonton-oilers-have-mishandled-their-goaltending-situation-the-hockey-writers-edmonton-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505820\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers Have Mishandled Their Goaltending Situation – The Hockey Writers – Edmonton Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers have had a goaltending dilemma for decades, and that hasn\u2019t been fixed. The previous regime thought they addressed the goaltending when they signed Jack Campbell in free agency. Unfortunately, that signing was a disaster from the get-go, eventually leading to Campbell\u2019s buyout, which is on the books until the 2029-30 season. That failure also forced Stuart Skinner<\/a> into the starter\u2019s role before he was ready, which had negative long-term effects.<\/p>\n

Now, general manager Stan Bowman has tried to fix the goaltending problem again, but so far, it hasn\u2019t worked out. The front office has made a few glaring errors with how they\u2019ve handled the goaltending situation this season, and it\u2019s not looking good. Looking back, Bowman should regret some of his decision-making, because the moves he made haven\u2019t made the team better. If anything, the team is worse between the pipes. This whole situation was entirely mismanaged, and who knows if it can be fixed.<\/p>\n

Oilers\u2019 Loyalty to Calvin Pickard Proved Costly<\/p>\n

Calvin Pickard<\/a> had a great run in Edmonton, and if it weren\u2019t for him, the Oilers wouldn\u2019t have made it to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. However, it\u2019s time to focus on the present, not the past. This is a \u201cwhat have you done for me lately\u201d business, and this season, Pickard\u2019s NHL numbers are atrocious. He has a putrid 3.68 goals-against average (GAA) and an .871 save percentage (SV%) in 16 games this season. That\u2019s not good enough for a backup goaltender, and a change should\u2019ve been made much sooner.<\/p>\n

Related: Calvin Pickard\u2019s Agent Believes Goalie Will Eventually Be Back With Oilers<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s well documented that Pickard is adored in the locker room<\/a>, which is why he stuck around for so long. The Oilers had three goalies on the roster for over a month because they didn\u2019t want to place him on waivers and upset the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t shut off the emotions. He\u2019s one of my best friends. I\u2019m going to miss him no matter what. But at the end of the day, I\u2019ve got to continue to do what I do, whether Picks is here or not,\u201d Leon Draisaitl stated after Pickard was sent down<\/a>. The team was too loyal to the journeyman netminder, and that hindered their decision-making. If he had been waived sooner, maybe things would\u2019ve turned out differently, which leads us to the next point.<\/p>\n

Oilers Should\u2019ve Called up Connor Ingram Before Trading Stuart Skinner<\/p>\n

If the Oilers had made the difficult decision to waive Pickard in November, they could\u2019ve called up Connor Ingram<\/a> sooner and experimented with him in a tandem alongside Skinner. Unfortunately, they didn\u2019t go that route and decided to trade Skinner to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Tristan Jarry<\/a> on Dec. 12. Bowman made a desperation move in goal, and it\u2019s coming back to bite him.<\/p>\n

Not only did they make a lateral move, but they also gave up significant assets<\/a> to do so. They traded defenceman Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick in the deal and didn\u2019t even get salary retention. The Penguins later flipped Kulak to the Colorado Avalanche for Samuel Girard and a second-round pick, in another example of poor asset management by Edmonton. The Oilers should\u2019ve waited and been more patient in this situation.<\/p>\n

\"ConnorVegas Golden Knights left winger Cole Reinhardt fights for the puck in front of Edmonton Oilers goalie Connor Ingram (Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Maybe Ingram could\u2019ve come in sooner and stabilized the crease, preventing a panic move. If he succeeded with Skinner, the organization could have delayed significant changes<\/a> while deciding on Skinner\u2019s future in the offseason. Skinner was a pending unrestricted free agent with a manageable $2.6 million cap hit, so the organization wasn\u2019t bound to him past this season.<\/p>\n

They could\u2019ve saved their assets for a big goalie trade in the offseason. Instead, they acquired an expensive goalie with a $5.38 million cap hit with two more seasons on the deal.<\/p>\n

Jarry would\u2019ve likely been available closer to the trade deadline, so if Ingram didn\u2019t work out with Skinner, that trade option could\u2019ve been explored later, as a last resort. Jarry also has a 12-team no-trade list, so unless the organization can find another fit, they are stuck with him and won\u2019t be able to find a significant upgrade in the summer. The Oilers handcuffed themselves with these decisions, and the goaltending isn\u2019t better off for it. It\u2019s up to Bowman to fix the problems he created.<\/p>\n

These \u201cwhat if?\u201d scenarios make you wonder how different things would be if more logical decisions were made. Keep following The Hockey Writers<\/a> for all your NHL content throughout the season.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers have had a goaltending dilemma for decades, and that hasn\u2019t been fixed. The previous regime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,44787,48,50808,23752,6852],"class_list":["post-505820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-calvin-pickard","tag-canada","tag-connor-ingram","tag-edmonton","tag-stuart-skinner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}