It’s no secret that Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner has been less than perfect to start the postseason. How less than perfect, you may ask?
Let’s start with a graphic.
They say a picture is worth 1000 words. And this one certainly fits that saying.
After the first two games of the 2024–25 NHL Playoffs, Stuart Skinner is by far the worst performing goalie in the league. Nearly an entire goal worse in the goals saved above expected column. And that is telling of one of the biggest barriers to Edmonton Oilers success this postseason. The goaltending.
The defence is not helping, however
It’s not the only problem, not at all. Without even doing any digging into it, four or five goals can be directly attributed to defensive miscues and giveaways that most goalies would have struggled to save.
Think back to the first goal in the series. What is Andrei Kuzmenko doing all alone behind Skinner? What about the two horrifying giveaways by Evan Bouchard later in game one? A blind behind the back pass from behind his own net to two Los Angeles Kings charging into the slot. That can’t happen.
Or in game two when Viktor Arvidsson fans on continuous passes as be backs closer and closer to his own net, leaving a King with a wide open shot from the slot. Or when Darnell Nurse was hanging out in no man’s land along the half wall as a King grabbed the puck and, once again, charged into the slot for an easy goal.
By no means is this entirely on the goaltending. The play of the skaters in front of Skinner and Calvin Pickard has been atrocious. But, at the same time, the goaltending has not been a contributing factor to any team success. It is necessary to have a goalie who can make a big, game changing save once in a while. The Oilers do not have that presence in net as regularly or reliably as a true contending team needs.
It didn’t have to be that way, though. There were plenty of opportunities over the past handful of years to address that.
Let’s jump back up to that graphic for a second and look at some of those names. Particularly the ones at the top. Who do we see there?
Mackenzie Blackwood, Jacob Markstrom, and Logan Thompson.
The goalies the Edmonton Oilers could have had
What do all three of those goalies have in common? They have all been available on the market in recent seasons. And in the case of Markstrom, anyways, players the Oilers were closely pursuing. Remember, there was a rumoured contract offer to Markstrom way back when.
In the case of the other two, both goalies have been traded to their current teams over the past year.
But the goalie market is sparse and probably expensive, right? Surely the Oilers couldn’t have afforded high calibre goalies like Blackwood and Thompson?
That’s not entirely correct. Blackwood was traded to the Colorado Avalanche for Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko, a fifth-round draft pick, and a second-round draft pick. That is a package with a value the Oilers could have put together. And Blackwood was someone we here said that Edmonton should be pursuing.
How about Thompson? Recently on a Stanley Cup winning team, had some good potential in a battle with Adin Hill in the Vegas Golden Knights’ crease? What was the return for him?
Two third-round draft picks. That’s it.
Now, it is impossible to say whether or not these two goalies would have performed with the Oilers how they are performing with their respective new teams. But even in an environment with as questionable goaltending practices as Edmonton, you’d have to think the foundation they possess as players to get them to the level they are performing now would lead to at least league average goaltending with the Oilers. And generally speaking, consistent league average goaltending is all it would take for this team to hit another level.
Bonus points, sitting in seventh there, Anthony Stolarz. That should be a familiar name to Edmonton Oilers fans. He was, after all, an Oiler for a hot minute back in 2018–19. Now he’s giving the Toronto Maple Leafs some of the strongest goaltending performances they’ve seen in years.
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