Edmonton Oilers netminder Calvin Pickard left the team’s Saturday night pre-season game injured after a teammate collided with him in the first period.
It happened with just over eight minutes left in the frame when Seattle Kraken forward Yanni Gourde was driving to the net, pushing Oilers centre Noah Philp into the netminder. Pickard fell in a heap, shaking off his blocker to grab his facemask.
Oilers trainer T.D. Forss came out to tend to Pickard, who would leave the game being replaced by Oliver Rodrigue. At the time of writing, there’s no word if Pickard was injured on the play, or if he was just removed for precautionary reasons.
The 2024-25 season marks the second year that Pickard is slated to be the backup netminder, having been recalled a month into the 2023-24 campaign. He appeared in 23 regular season games for the Oilers, posting a 12-7-1 record, .909 save percentage and 2.45 goals against average, providing quality starts for the team.
The 31-year-old got his first taste of the playoffs, too, drawing in for three playoff games — two of which he started — against the Vancouver Canucks. Pickard posted a 1-1 record, .915 save percentage and a 2.21 goals against average.
He re-signed with the Oilers this past summer, inking a two-year deal paying him $1-million per year.
Rodrigue is the team’s defacto number three goaltender and is destined to be the starting goaltender of the Oilers’ AHL affiliate Bakersfield Condors. He appeared in 37 games with them last year, posting a 19-12-5 record, .916 save percentage and 2.73 GAA.
Heading into Saturday night’s game, Rodrigue had appeared in two pre-season games, going 0-1, posting a .812 save percentage and a 4.84 GAA.
After the first period of Saturday’s game, the Oilers and Kraken were tied at two in thanks to goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Noah Philp.
