In the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Andrei Vasilevskiy posted a .937 save percentage (SV%) and a 1.90 goals-against average (GAA) while putting together five shutouts. He led the Tampa Bay Lightning to their second Stanley Cup title in a row and won the Conn Smythe Trophy because of his dominance in the net, which included a Game 5 shutout over the Montreal Canadiens to seal the championship.
The next season saw the same dominant Vasilevskiy lead the Lightning to the Final. This time, they faced the Colorado Avalanche, who, like the Lightning, were a well-built team, except they didn’t have an elite goaltender. Darcy Kuemper is good but far from world-class like Vasilevskiy. He made enough saves to allow the Avalanche to win it all in 2022. Little did everyone know that this would be the beginning of a trend.
The next season saw the Vegas Golden Knights with the Cup, with Adin Hill in the net. What stands out about that run is that Hill wasn’t the primary starter to begin the season or the playoffs, for that matter. He came with the Golden Knights battling injuries in the net and never looked back, leading the team on a remarkable run.
It’s fitting that the Edmonton Oilers recently eliminated the Golden Knights in five games, with Game 5 being a goaltending duel. The Golden Knights set the trend, and the Oilers are taking it to another level. The NHL is a hard cap league where teams can only spend so much. Recent winners are proving that the best way to build a champion is by cutting corners in the net and using the extra cap space to spend elsewhere.
The Golden Knights Proved it With Hill in the Net
The Golden Knights, ironically, built from the net out in their first season of existence. They had Marc-Andre Fleury leading them, and great defense surrounding him, which led the team to the Final in 2018. The Golden Knights initially relied on depth but the 2022-23 team shows how far they pivoted.
They made the big moves to acquire stars. Jack Eichel is a center to build around, and the Golden Knights made a blockbuster trade to get him. The same applied to Mark Stone. Alex Pietrangelo was available in the 2020 offseason, and the Golden Knights spent big to land him. By the time the 2022-23 season rolled around, they became a top-heavy group carried by elite talent.
The Golden Knights moved one from Fleury, and instead of paying one or two goaltenders, they rotated five. That season, they had five goaltenders on their roster, and Hill only started 25 games. Laurent Brossoit started when the playoffs began but left Game 3 of the Second Round series with an injury.
Bruce Cassidy had Jonathan Quick on the depth chart, a two-time Cup winner and a playoff-proven goaltender. He went with Hill instead, who was the hot hand and ultimately the best option. Hill had a .932 SV% and a 2.17 GAA in the playoff run. That said, his play speaks more to how the Golden Knights were built.
The Golden Knights had Hill under contract as a bargain deal, paying him under $2 million average annual value (AAV). They spent under $10 million on the position altogether. Instead, they used to extra cap space to invest in an elite defense and stars in the forward unit. It paid off, and one of the teams they eliminated in 2023 took note of that.
The Oilers Are Winning With a Skinner & Pickard Duo
The Oilers are paying Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard a combined $3.6 million AAV, which, for this team, is where they must cut corners. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman are elite talents and are paid that way, while the team spends big on the defense as well. The Oilers can’t afford elite goaltending and, oddly enough, they don’t want it either. They just want a goaltender to catch fire.
Skinner and Pickard are far from great. It shows during the regular season. However, when they are playing well, they can outduel anyone. Skinner led the Oilers to the Final last year and is coming off of back-to-back shutout against the Golden Knights, allowing the Oilers to advance to the Western Conference Final. He was awful to start the playoffs, and it’s why Pickard came in to start Game 3 of the First Round. While Pickard didn’t dominate, with an .888 SV% and a 2.84 GAA in six starts, he got the job done.
It’s easy to look at the Oilers as a team led by great goaltending. On the contrary, their goaltending might be the worst in the playoffs, at least on paper. Yet, it’s been great. It starts with a great defense in front of them. The Oilers are limiting shots on the net and daring opponents to force shots from tough angles. On top of that, this is a team that can go score-for-score with anyone. They win high-scoring games, which by default, helps their goaltending out.
Do great goaltenders win the Cup? Yes. But do great teams also win the Cup? Absolutely. The 2020s are an era where the better teams from the top down stand out, and the Oilers are one of them. They don’t have great goaltending, and it doesn’t matter because everything around them is great.
To the Oilers Credit, Skinner Delivered
Skinner isn’t an afterthought in the Oilers’ success. He’s overlooked considering the star power throughout the lineup, and his first three starts of the 2025 playoffs were forgettable as he allowed 15 goals and 82 shots. However, he is back, well-rested, and ready to go on a run. It’s what he did last season and is what he’s doing this time around.
After Game 3 against the Golden Knights, it looked like Skinner would let the Oilers down, allowing four goals on 24 shots. Then he put together a 23-save shutout in Game 4 and a 24-save shutout in Game 5 to secure the series. He’s found his footing and is ready to lead the Oilers on a deep playoff run and possibly to the Cup.
It also helps that head coach Kris Knoblauch is handling the position well. He knows when a starter needs rest and knows when it’s time to pull one goaltender and start the other. In the 2024 run, he knew Skinner needed a few days off, and Pickard started two games in the Second Round. Knoblauch also knew this time around that Pickard had to come in to save the day, and he did until he was injured in Game 2 against the Golden Knights.
It’s hard to point to one thing that makes Knoblauch a great coach. Yet, his ability to manage the goaltending stands out. He’s pulling the right strings, and it’s giving the Oilers an edge, even when they lack elite play in the net.
Why This Might Not Be The Trend
The Florida Panthers are the contradiction to this. Sure, a lot of the teams making deep playoff runs lack elite goaltending but the Panthers are the team to beat in the NHL, and having Sergei Bobrovsky is one of the reasons why. Bobrovsky has his inconsistencies and isn’t a Vezina Trophy caliber goaltender, at least not anymore. Yet, he’s one of the elite ones in the league.
Bobrovsky can shut down an opponent on any given night, and he’s done so multiple times in recent playoff runs. The Panthers don’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024 or reach the Final in 2023 without him. Bobrovsky is the type of goaltender who can outduel anyone, and he’s done just that in the playoffs.
The Panthers and Oilers can face each other in a Stanley Cup Final rematch. Oddly, it would be a matchup that speaks to how teams not only should be built, but how they’ll view goaltending. Is the $10 million AAV contract for Bobrovsky worth it? It is when the Panthers win the Cup, which they did last year.
