The Edmonton Oilers and needing consistent goaltending, name a more iconic duo.
In 15 games this season, starter Stuart Skinner is 7–6–2, which is already not a great record for the starter of a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Then you add on his 0.876 save percentage and 3.33 goals against average and things look even more ugly.
So it begs the question of whether Skinner is the man for the job and the Oilers should see if they can weather the storm, or if the team cannot afford to wait any longer and should look at outside replacements.
We asked Oil Country who they would want to see come in to try to help stabilize the Oilers net.
Blackwood is the most favoured
With 60% of the vote, the majority of fans appear to want San Jose Sharks goalie MacKenzie Blackwood to don the Orange and Blue.
Blackwood is just a year older than Skinner, and actually has worse career numbers (0.904 SV% and 3.08 GAA vs 0.906 SV% and 2.76 GAA).
This season, however, Blackwood has put up a decent 0.910 SV%. He does have a less than great 3.07 GAA, but given he is playing on a team that is average 3.59 goals against per game, that is actually pretty good.
It isn’t unconceivable that a goalie playing decent on a bottom dweller could look much better on a contending team, and that likely plays into Blackwood’s selection here.
Another factor in Blackwood’s favour is his contract. Blackwood’s cap hit is only $2.35M and it expires this year. It makes Blackwood a pretty low risk target if he doesn’t work out.
One issue, however, is that San Jose doesn’t have any more salary retention spots, and so the Oilers would have to take on his full cap hit, or get another team involved. They currently have that in LTIR room, but if/when Evander Kane is healthy the Oilers would have to clear enough cap space to fit him back in.
A straight swap of Blackwood and Skinner would resolve that issue, but do the Oilers really want to fully give up on a young, cost controlled goalie who has shown flashes previously? Probably not, as they would most likely be looking at Blackwood to be in an equal tandem with Skinner, rather than becoming the full time starter.
Gibson has been heavily speculated
John Gibson comes up next on the list, with over a quarter of the votes.
There is a question of whether Gibson is the best goalie, or if everyone is just remembering Gibson in his prime and the dreams of trying to get him back then.
At 31-years-old, Gibson isn’t necessarily an old goalie, but he has played starting minutes for the past nine seasons. While his 0.915 SV% and 2.46 GAA this year look very impressive, one has to consider that he has only played four games this season. The last time Gibson posted a save percentage above 0.900 was in 2021–22, and even then it was 0.904. So it seems almost impossible that Gibson would round back into his almost 0.920 form that we all associate with his name.
And then there is probably the biggest issue with acquiring Gibson: his contract.
Gibson has this season plus another two at a cap hit of $6.4M, not exactly chump change. He also has a no-trade clause, but it has been rumoured that he is willing to waive it for Edmonton, so we will ignore that.
If trying to fit in Blackwood’s salary would cause slight problems with the cap, then Gibson’s would be even more problematic. Even if Anaheim were to retain half his salary, the Oilers would still have to clear out some salary to fit him in right now (although that likely is just Josh Brown and his $1M salary going back to the minors), let alone when Kane comes back.
The risk may be too high for the potential reward here.
Adding a rival in Vladar
About 10% of you are on board with bringing in a goalie from the arch-rival Calgary Flames, who has a name that is aptly close to Darth Vader.
But Vladar is having quite a good season, with a save percentage of 0.906 and a GAA of 2.65. But he appears to have lost the starting job to rookie Dustin Wolf, who is playing out of his mind, and so looks to be ripe to be traded by a rebuilding team.
Like Blackwood, Vladar is just a year older than Skinner and has a palatable $2.2M contract that expires at the end of the year.
However, unlike Blackwood, Vladar has never played more than 27 games in a season and has only one other season above 0.900, which likely makes him a risky play.
Plus, with a potential division rival tax, Vladar may be too pricey to acquire, at least for what he is.
Nedeljkovic is not the answer
Coming in last is a goalie who at one point looked to be an upcoming bona fide starter who has since fallen off hard, Alex Nedeljkovic.
After posting a 0.932 SV% and 1.90 GAA in 23 games in the lockout shortened 2020–21 season, along with a 0.920 SV% and 2.17 GAA in nine playoff games, “Ned” was looking like a huge miss by many teams (including the Oilers) by not picking him up off waivers before that season started.
He turned that performance into a two-year, $6M contract with Detroit. In his first year as a starter, playing 59 games, his stats were mediocre at 0.901 SV% and 3.31 GAA, certainly not the type of play the Red Wings were expecting. His play deteriorated even more the next season, resulting in a demotion to the minor leagues.
The next season he signed a one year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins and rebounded slightly, to the tune of a 0.902 SV% and 2.97 GAA in 38 games. That netted him a two-year contract at $2.5 million per year, which he rewarded Pittsburgh with…a 0.886 SV% and 3.17 GAA.
So Nedeljkovic is certainly a risky proposition, as if Skinner’s consistency issues are causing consternation, he may be on a whole other level.
That being said, with Pittsburgh looking to be a seller and Nedeljkovic’s penchant for starting off well with a new team, perhaps a decent deal could be had and work out. But that second year of the contract may be a sticking point for such a risk.
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