After a disappointing first-round exit, the Edmonton Oilers will surely be looking to make some changes in the offseason. There are a number of areas that need to be addressed, with TSN recently highlighting four of them.
But of those four, which one does Oil Country think is the most important one for the club?
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True number one goalie
Two-thirds of the votes were for the team to address its goaltending. This isn’t surprising in the least, as that has essentially been the most glaring weakness for the team in the Connor McDavid era.
The goaltending the team received this past year was nowhere near where a team with championship aspirations needed it to be.
The team started the season with the same tandem as last year, being Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard. Skinner went 11–8–4 with a 0.891 save percentage (the worst save percentage in his career). Pickard was even worse at 5–6–2 and 0.871.
Given those performances, GM Stan Bowman pulled the trigger on a long-rumoured deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He swapped Skinner (along with a second-round pick and defenceman Brett Kulak) for Tristan Jarry. It was a deal that smelled strongly of a panic move, as Jarry was coming off a career-worst year last season, when he was put on, then subsequently cleared waivers.
Jarry was having a better year this year, though, with a 9–3–1 record and 0.909 save percentage. He looked decent in his first few games, but after suffering an injury, he struggled in his return and only posted a 0.858 save percentage as an Oiler.
That led the Oilers to call up Connor Ingram, whom they acquired prior to the season starting. Ingram’s AHL stats were not great at the time. He had a 4–5–2 record and 0.856 save percentage.
However, Ingram played solid for the Oilers. He played 32 games, going 16–10–3 with a 0.899 save percentage and taking over the starter’s net. He was not quite as good in the playoffs, but to be fair, the team as a whole was not either.
What the Oilers currently have to work with
Ingram is an unrestricted free agent, and it is unclear if the Oilers will try to bring him back. Jarry still has two years at $5.375M left on his contract, which makes things tough for the team.
The free agent market isn’t looking particularly strong, although it would be interesting if the Oilers were to bring in Sergei Bobrovsky, the man who stymied them in the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row. Frederik Andersen, who is currently backstopping the Carolina Hurricanes in the final, is also a UFA, although his injury history is a concern.
In terms of a trade, there are rumours that Sebastian Cossa could be available from Detroit. However, he has only played one NHL game in his career, and so there is no guarantee he could step in to be a bona fide starter this year. He would be a good get looking forward, but the Oilers are looking to win now.
So while this may be the number one priority, it may also be the most difficult one to achieve (for the nth year in a row).
Championship level head coach
In second place, with 25% of the votes, was getting a “championship-level” head coach. The team fired Kris Knoblauch despite having a three-year extension that hadn’t even kicked in yet. It seems that the team is going to be looking at the more experienced coaching route, rather than a third first-time head coach in a row.
Of course, Knoblauch’s firing was likely precipitated by the leaking of the news that the Oilers had requested permission from the Vegas Golden Knights to speak to their recently fired coach, Bruce Cassidy. To date, the Knights have not yet given that permission, and it remains to be seen if/when they will.
So it is no secret that the Oilers’ first choice is Cassidy. He has the pedigree, having won the Stanley Cup with Vegas in 2023, and has a 438–226–9–79 record as a head coach.
There are still a few other head coaches with a Stanley Cup ring available this year. This list includes Peter Laviolette (who beat the Oilers in 2006 for his win with the Carolina Hurricanes) and Craig Berube, who guided the St. Louis Blues to their surprising win in 2019. The Oilers have already spoken to Berube, although I think most Oilers fans would be wary of bringing him on, given the disastrous season he just had with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
So it will depend on just how important the Stanley Cup ring criterion actually is for the Oilers. It clearly limits the list of candidates. But it certainly seems as though whoever it is will be someone with a decent amount of head coaching experience (although wouldn’t it be something if the team brought back Jay Woodcroft?).
Top-six goal scoring winger
With just 8.3% of the votes, a top-six goal-scoring winger was a distant third place in priority.
This has been a bit of a concern in the past, and the team has tried to fill that gap with cheaper veterans with a history of scoring goals, like Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner and Andrew Mangiapane. However, those players never seemed to find their footing, meaning that second-line depth scoring was still an issue.
This year, however, the Oilers had two players take a step forward in Vasily Podkolzin and Matt Savoie, who scored 19 and 18 goals, respectively.
When you throw in Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the team would appear to have their top-six complete, although there is a question of whether or not Nuge would be the third line centre instead.
So it isn’t surprising that this is no longer considered a high priority for the team. The team also has Ike Howard, who is projected to be a goal-first winger, in the system. While it may be tempting to try to go out and get a veteran winger instead of relying on youngsters, that strategy has not panned out over the last few years, and even resulted in the team losing out on a player who is now a first-line winger in Dylan Holloway.
Therefore, this may be more of a luxury rather than a need.
Steady right-shot defenceman
Perhaps surprisingly, a right-shot defenceman got zero votes from the fans. This is surprising because this has been noted as an area of concern for the past few years as well.
The team has been searching for a partner for Darnell Nurse for years, as Cody Ceci, Tyson Barrie, and Jake Walman never seemed to fully gel with him.
The Oilers acquired Connor Murphy at the trade deadline, who did appear to find chemistry with Nurse, giving the Oilers a shutdown pairing. However, Murphy is an unrestricted free agent, and there are no guarantees he comes back.
If he doesn’t, then it would be hard to say this isn’t a priority for the team. Granted, Ty Emberson did take a step forward this year, and Walman will hopefully improve after an injury-riddled season. But if the rumours that Nurse could be traded are true, then the team will definitely need to be looking for a replacement top-four defenceman (depending on the return in such a trade).
So arguably, this is a bigger issue than a winger, although there is a lot of “ifs” in terms of just how much it really is.
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