Oilers Will Have Trouble Making Changes In Goal

One of the stories of the season has been the Edmonton Oilers, specifically, the slow start they’ve gotten off to. Two deep playoff runs can take a toll on a team, and that’s what’s happened to this group as they’ve stumbled out of the gate and head into the final weekend of November out of playoff position.

Related: Oilers Want Help In Net

The scapegoat has become the goaltending, and based on the reports, the more the Oilers struggle, the more likely they’ll make a change in the net. Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard as a duo aren’t good enough to win a Cup, as the last two seasons have shown. This season, it’s not good enough to win games. It’s not the only problem this team has but it’s the biggest and toughest to fix.

The question is, what can the Oilers do to fix their goaltending? They won’t waste a season of Connor McDavid’s prime, and with a win-now roster, they’ll do everything they can to fix the problem in the pipes. With the quarter of the season out of the way, the options are limited, and all pose risks.

Oilers Can Try What The Avalanche Did Last Season

There’s a common cliche in hockey that it’s hard to acquire a goaltender midseason and expect them to play at a high level. Goaltenders usually are traded in the offseason, and teams are wary of a midseason move for a volatile and unpredictable position. Last season, the Colorado Avalanche overhauled their unit, and it paid off.

They realized early on in the season that the Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen tandem wasn’t working and instead was letting down a Cup-caliber team. They traded Georgiev for MacKenzie Blackwood and Annunen for Scott Wegdewood. Overnight, they went from a league-worst to one of the best.

They proved that it can be done, and in the Oilers case, they can trade Skinner, Pickard, or both to save their season. Skinner is the goaltender whom other teams will want to take a chance on and flip in a trade involving an aging starter who is in his prime. That said, the Oilers ideally find a way to move Pickard first since he’s the backup and the worst of the two this season.

Just because the Avalanche pulled it off doesn’t mean the Oilers can. Sure, their tandem has let them down but there are always risks, and things can get worse. Take Tristan Jarry, for example. Yes, he’s having a great season but his health is an issue, and so is his play in the playoffs. If there’s one thing the Oilers know they are getting from Skinner, it’s starts, which every NHL team values. Flipping the goaltending is a dangerous game, and for every time it’s worked, there have been times it’s flopped.

Oilers Can Make Tweaks

The alternative to the overhaul is trading for a backup or taking a flier on a depth goaltender and hoping it works. Say, the Oilers moved out Pickard and brought in Jarry, or even an American Hockey League (AHL) option like Michael DiPietro or Clay Stevenson. They can accomplish two things with this move.

The first thing is that they can hit the jackpot with a depth goaltender. The position is unpredictable, so if they make a move for a depth name who finds his footing, then the Oilers have their starter for years to come. The other thing this accomplishes is that it lights a fire under Skinner, who, without question, is feeling the heat but a change can fuel him even further.

This type of trade also comes with fewer risks. Instead of overhauling the goaltending and putting the team in a spot with no answers in the net, the Oilers are making one adjustment. It’s a middle ground and probably the path they take, all things considered. The only downside is that this move is unlikely to change the Oilers in the big picture. They needed a goaltender who makes a difference in the playoffs, and they can only find one with a splash.

The Splash Addition

The big names to watch are Juuse Saros, Ilya Sorokin, and Jordan Binnington. They are the goaltenders that the Oilers acquire with the playoffs in mind. All three are talented and are not getting a lot of help from the defense in front of them but in a big game, they can deliver. The window to contend for the Oilers is now, and these are the goaltenders they get with that in mind.

The catch is that the Oilers don’t have any assets or pieces to make that trade happen. They also don’t have the cap space to fit any of them on their roster, so one move would trigger a few subsequent moves. Ideally, they have Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod, or even Evander Kane to make a move like this work but they let all three go in the previous offseasons. The Oilers don’t have a great farm system, and lack draft picks to make a big trade as well, and all three of the above-mentioned goaltenders will require that to make it work.

The best the Oilers can do is trade a core skater to land a top goaltender. The Nashville Predators, New York Islanders, St. Louis Blues, and any team that’s trading a franchise goaltender will want a building block in the return, and those players on the Oilers are Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Those skaters aren’t going anywhere, and if they did, it would only create more issues on a team with plenty of them (like cutting off your nose to spite your face).

So, What Path is Best For The Oilers?

Unless the Oilers find a way to land a depth goaltender without overhauling the unit, the best path is an unpopular one. It involves time. It involves patience. For a team that entered this season in Cup-or-bust mode and a market that is growing restless with the roster and their struggles, time is not on their side.

That said, they need more clarity on the goaltending and can get some in the coming months. Skinner, for all of his struggles, can bounce back. It’s something the Oilers have seen time and time again (when he’s on a heater, he can outduel any goaltender in the Western Conference).

The Oilers also have Connor Ingram in the AHL, who is working his way back to the NHL. Like a trade, Ingram is an unknown. However, when he’s ready to return and be a part of the Oilers, the team can find out soon enough if he upgrades the unit. The veteran, like Skinner, has his highs but the team won’t know if he can hone them in for a few weeks, if not a month.

So, the Oilers and the hockey world wait. Everyone is watching this fascinating team and waiting for something big to happen, like a volcano ready to erupt. Big changes are expected, and the question is whether they will happen and when they might happen. For now, it’s all up in the air.