Edmonton Oilers: Mikko Koskinen has been huge surprise

After two decades of mostly futility, the Edmonton Oilers look to be winners again. Their netminder MikkoKoskinen is a huge part of that.

The season may still be young, but the Edmonton Oilers have finally been playing with like the team their fans have been waiting for. The team known more for winning at the draft lottery is winning on the ice, and in dominating fashion.

Night in and night out, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl show why they’re two of the best players in the world. Meanwhile, Jesse Puljujarvi is playing an ocean away and I don’t think anyone in Edmonton misses him that much.

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While the Oilers might have been one of the NHL’s biggest surprises, who their biggest surprise as a player? Sure, we’re heard a lot about James Neal, who after a trade from the Calgary Flames has already scored nine goals following an entire season where he only scored seven.

However, what people are so quick to forget is that Neal has scored 20 or more goals, including a 40 goal season in 2011-2012, 10 times before. This season is more of a return to form for him after an outlier of underperformance last year.

Instead, the greatest surprise to come from the Oilers so far this season has been their goaltender, Mikko Koskinen. The 31-year-old has limited NHL experience, spending most of his career in the KHL.

So far, his stateside resume includes last year’s whole season in Edmonton and a short and unimpressive four-game stint with the New York Islanders back in 2010-2011. Last year Koskinen turned heads, not for his play, but because the Oilers signed him to a three-year contract with an average annual value of $4.5 million after only 27 NHL games.

Putting up big money for a goaltender that barely turned heads in his small sample size was one of infamous Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli’s departing moves before his firing last season. His first season in Edmonton saw Koskinen post average and unspectacular numbers of a 2.93 goals-against average with a .906 save percentage.

This year has seen Koskinen’s numbers improve substantially. Although Koskinen has only started four games so far, he’s won all four decisions. His unbeaten record goes along with a much improved 2.20 goals-against average and 0.934 save percentage.

Of course, there’s still plenty of season for the overperforming Oilers to fall back to earth, but Edmonton fans should be excited about what they see in goal. He’s not Grant Fuhr, but any questions raised when he signed his contract extension last year appear to be answered.

Who deserves the credit for Koskinen’s improvement? Maybe it’s head coach Dave Tippet. After all, Tippet was able to get the most out of now Oilers backup goaltender Mike Smith back when they were together with the Arizona Coyotes.

Koskinen was absent from the Edmonton Oilers’ last playoff run in 2017. Back then, Cam Talbot was the starting goalie. Unfortunately, Talbot could never replicate that performance, a trait Koskinen hopes to reverse. Koskinen looks to be the man to lead them there this season and beyond.