This was one of the most anticipated moves of the last decade for the Edmonton Oilers. The acquisition of a new goalie after trying and only nearly succeeding with a tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard over the past two seasons. The stats and eye test don’t lie; the Oilers needed this change. General managers Ken Holland and Stan Bowman both sat on their hands trying to address the goalie position during their tenures, with Holland’s panic signing of Jack Campbell being a quick failure that led to the situation the team was in. Bowman missed the boat on a handful of starters, like Mackenzie Blackwood and Logan Thompson, that were quietly available and would have been an improvement, as they went and lit it up with their new teams immediately.
Alas, after what seemed like forever waiting while the front office abided by the message of holding out for the right move and not making the trade for the sake of making the trade, the time had come.
Rumblings began the week prior, when insider Elliotte Friedman suggested that a deal was in place that wouldn’t happen anytime soon due to disagreements on cap retention. But less than one week later, that was solved when the Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins agreed to swap Skinner (along with Brett Kulak and a second-round draft pick) for Tristan Jarry (and Sam Poulin).
The immediate reactions were a combination of emotions. On one side, a feeling of relief and excitement for a move to finally be made. On the other hand, the frustration that this was a massive overpayment for the lateral move Bowman was clear he would not make.
We wanted to gauge the temperature out in Oil Country, so for this week’s Sunday Census, we asked the fans to vote on their thoughts on the Tristan Jarry trade.
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Status quo was the way to go
The general sentiment amongst fans towards the Oilers’ goalies, and the people who put them in that position, was negative. However, there does exist a section of the fanbase that felt this tandem, specifically Skinner, was the right fit for this group. And they do have a point.
Overall, the Oilers have been one of the most successful teams in the league since Skinner became Edmonton’s starting goalie. Two consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances and a Western Conference semi-final appearance. A second-place finish in the Calder Trophy voting for the 2022–23 season. For a three-season career, Skinner has an imposing resume.
Most of the criticism of the Oilers this season stemmed from poor play by the skaters, which could very well have contributed to Skinner’s average start more than his own play. And it seems to be unfairly making a scapegoat out of the goaltender when the team in front of him makes massive defensive blunders on the regular and is unable to generate offence. Which the Oilers were doing until the last few weeks.
That is the key point of this particular viewpoint: that the goaltenders were being scapegoated for other problems on the ice. The belief that Skinner was fine finished tied for third in this week’s poll, with 11.2% of the vote.
They really chose Tristan Jarry?
Mackenzie Blackwood. Logan Thompson. Darcy Kuemper. John Gibson. Spencer Knight. Ville Husso. Justus Annunen. Yaroslav Askarov. Akira Schmid.
Those are just some of the goalies that have been traded over the past couple of years. Not all of them are better than Tristan Jarry, nor would all of them fit with what the Oilers need in the current moment. But those are some of the players that Edmonton sat on their hands and waited through before finally settling on Jarry.
Thompson is now a regular in the Norris Trophy conversation. Kuemper is solid in Los Angeles. Blackwood has stepped up his game with Colorado. Knight is one of the best young goalies in the league and is currently having a solid season with the Chicago Blackhawks, beginning their turnaround back into a competitive team.
This is an easy knock on Jarry that misses the nuance of the situation, but the Oilers have chosen the goalie who was on waivers last season and was a buyout candidate in the offseason. The goalie whose stats had regressed for four consecutive seasons until a bit of a bounce-back at the beginning of this season. The goalie who struggles with health and reliability.
At least they finally did something, but was Jarry really the best they could do? 11.2% of fans voted for this option, finishing tied for third in this week’s poll.
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Asking price is too damn high
Let’s face it, the Oilers were in a tough situation in this negotiation. Everyone and their dog knew that Edmonton desperately needed a goalie. It doesn’t take a genius to open up Puckpedia and see that they don’t have any cap space to do it. There is a reason the asking price was this high. A combination of a lack of leverage in the moment, while needing to free up the cap space to accommodate this, and any subsequent moves.
The trade sent Skinner, Kulak, and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh for Jarry and Poulin. For comparison, Thompson was traded to the Washington Capitals for two third-round picks. Blackwood was packaged with Givani Smith, a fifth-round draft pick, and some retention on Alexandar Georgiev, who was sent to San Jose with Nikolai Kovalenko, a second-round draft pick, and a fifth-round pick.
The absurdity of the return depends on which trade you look at, but generally, it seems that Bowman added more to get less. Not necessarily out of poor negotiation, but out of necessity. If Pittsburgh wouldn’t retain on Jarry, he needed to offload nearly the equivalent of Jarry’s cap hit to make the trade work. Hence, giving up both Skinner and Kulak.
The Oilers gave up a haul for a goalie who is not a significant improvement, on paper. Some situational stats suggest Jarry has strengths that work better with the Oilers’ system. But that is a risky bet.
Nearly a quarter of Oilers fans feel this was too high an asking price for a seemingly lateral move, with too high a cost finishing second in this week’s poll with 23.9% of the vote.
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Finally, a change was made!
The runaway winner of this week’s poll is the happiness that the Oilers finally made the move that nearly everyone has been waiting for. 53.7% of fans voted that this was a much-needed improvement.
We’ve been able to see it in action regularly over the past couple of years. Skinner had weaknesses that he could not improve. His lateral movement was uncoordinated and slow. His overcommitment to first chances threw himself out of position on rebounds. The inconsistency had him jumping from a top-five goalie in the world to the worst goalie in the league on a biweekly basis.
The Oilers gave him a few chances, hoping that he would grow into the position he was unexpectedly thrown into when Campbell was waived. Once he had a couple of seasons of experience, the Oilers believed the wrinkles would smooth out. They did not, despite regular confidence sent his way from the organization and an overhaul of the coaching staff last summer to bring in a new goalie coach.
Ultimately, it was time. And the Oilers finally made the move.
Jarry does have a higher ceiling, it seems, based on past performance. His seasons with the Penguins around 2020 were impressive. A career-best season in 2021–22 saw him record a 2.42 GAA and .919 save percentage on a Penguins team that finished with 103 points, third in the Metropolitan Division. The hope is that his recent regression is more because of the Penguins as a whole regressing, rather than the player regressing on his own. That once he has a fresh start and is back on a good team, he will return to form.
What are your thoughts on this block buster move? Drop a comment down below!
Never was a fan of Skinners goal tending style. Strictly a positional goalie…very little athleticism…if not in right position he was in trouble not able to respond quickly when required to.