As the Edmonton Oilers have continued to evaluate the goaltending market, it’s becoming clearer what the team is looking to do.
Rumours have swirled about the team making changes after falling in the Stanley Cup Final, where the team’s goaltending was a letdown. Those sentiments were only exacerbated this spring as both Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard split the net throughout the playoffs.
One change the team will make, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, is a change in the coaching department.
“I have to say there was a time I thought they might move on from Skinner. Now, I’m not convinced they’re going to do that. I think that they feel that. ” he said, transcribed by NHL Rumors. “One thing that’s happening is that they’re changing their goalie coach. They’re going to make a change at that position.
“And I don’t think it’s as simple as to blame the goalie coach for everything, it’s never that easy, but I do think they believe that this is still a young guy who’s shown real ability, and they are going to try working with them differently.”
Dustin Schwartz, a native of Settler, Alberta, had been the Oilers’ goaltending coach for 10 years, hired to replace Frederic Chabot in 2014-15, and there have been calls for years from the market for years to change out coaches. The list of netminders who have rolled through Edmonton over that decade with Skinner, Mikko Koskinen, Cam Talbot, Laurent Brossoit, Mike Smith, Calvin Pickard and Jack Campbell being seven of 17 goalies who have played two eyars or more under Schwartz.
That’s not the only change Friedman sees the Oilers making this summer, as he expects the Oilers to look for a different No. 2 to back up Skinner.
“I think that what they’ll probably try to do is change his partner, not necessarily because of anything that Pickard did,” Friedman said, as transcribed by NHL Rumors. “He battled, and he did a real nice job. I just think that they have to end the uncertainty in goal, and I think they feel that that might be the best way to do it.”
Pickard has been an admirable No. 2 option for the Oilers, appeareing in 59 regualar season games over the last two years, posting a 34-17-2 record, a .903 save percentage and a 2.61 goals against average. In the playoffs, he’s appeared in 13 games, posting an 8-2 record, .892 save percentage and a 2.72 goals against average.
The free agent market has started to dry up for the Oilers since free agency opened on July 1st. The remaining free agent goalies, according to PuckPedia, are Alexandar Georgiev, Ilya Samsonov, James Reimer, Georgii Romanov and Chris Driedger. The latter of the five didn’t play in the NHL last season, while the other four played anywhere from 49 to eight games, all of whom had save percentages of .899 or worse, and goals against average of 2.82 or worse.
Oilers general manager Stan Bowman spoke Wednesday, saying the team is continuing to see what’s out available, but that nothing has made sense for them this far, a week after leaving the door open to retaining Skinner and Pickard.
“It’s just a very unique situation because there’s only two per team, so it’s a bit of shuffling of chairs,” said Bowman of what the market has seen so far. “Haven’t really been much movement on the number ones around the league, a lot of movement filling in on the number two.
“We had some conversations but nothing really made any sense. So I think we are where we are now makes the most sense for us and continue to have conversations, but… we’re doing our job and talking to teams and agents, but nothing there really made any sense for us to move forward on.”
The Oilers didn’t issue a qualifying offer to goaltender Olivier Rodrigue ahead of free agency, and signed netminder Matt Tomkins to a two-year, $775,000 AAV deal.
