Can Stuart Skinner weather the late season playoff storm before the Stanley Cup Playoffs? With the euphoria surrounding the winning goal in the recent 4 Nations Face-Off tournament being scored by Oilers' legend Connor McDavid, the folks in Oil Country have come back down to earth as their local home team is 3-6-1 in the last ten games including a five-game losing skid.
Turn back the clock to last June and the Edmonton Oilers were fighting it out in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the eventual champion Florida Panthers. However, that was last season and the Oilers could find themselves in serious playoff trouble if they cannot right their own ship as the final weeks of the NHL regular season rapidly approaches.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner has been a stalwart between the pipes for the OIlers and one one of the key reasons why Edmonton went to the final game of the Stanley Cup finals last season. However, it's never safe to rest upon anyone's laurels in sports as Skinner's current walkout tune at this point in the 2024-25 season should really be Janet Jackson's song "What Have You Done for Me Lately".
At this critical point in the season, Skinner isn't necessarily horrible but a 20-15-4 record with a .898 save percentage and a 2,87 goals against average certainly doesn't elevate to a Vezina Trophy-caliber season either. Skinner is a local Edmonton product and a fan favorite in Oil Country. However, Skinner may be more of a liability rather than an asset heading into a serious playoff push.
It should be noted that backup goalie Calvin Pickard isn't selling himself to be the every-night starter as well. With a 14-6-0 record and an average .896 save percentage and a 2.69 goals against average, Pickard's statistics this season almost mirror what Stuart Skinner has done this season.
The current goaltending situation in Edmonton begs the question as to whether Skinner or Pickard are up to the task of leading this illustrious organization back to the Stanley Cup playoffs this season, let alone make it all the way to the Cup Finals. Pickard is a rare goaltending bargain in this day and age with only a $1 million dollar salary cap and will not become and unrestricted free agent (UFA) until the end of next season.
Will the Oilers have to explore other goalie options before the end of the upcoming trade deadline?
The NHL trade deadline clock is truly ticking away and next Friday will come quickly for all the teams in this league. The Edmonton Oilers need to figure out if they can make a successful playoff run with the Skinner-Pickard netminding duo or will they have to trade for another option between the pipes. If the Oilers' front office does decide to trade for some goaltending help, the good news is that there are available options to help protect the pipes.
One of the most obvious goalie options avaible to Edmonton right now is making a trade with their rival Pacific Division foes in Vancouver. The Canucks have for all intents and purposes moved on from erstwhile goalie starter Thatcher Demko and the recent contract extension for Vancouver backup Kevin Lankinen spells out Demko's future in Vancouver is no longer a viable option.
Demko brings experience and has shown flashes of greatness over the past few years in Vancouver but injuries are piling up and the question remains as to whether a change of scenery could "cure" Demko of what ails him or whether his days in the NHL are now numbered.
Another possible option for an Edmonton trade deal is negotiating to bring John Gibson from Anaheim to Oil Country. While Gibson is only 9-9-2 this season, he consistently has played well with a bottom-feeding Ducks squad that is on a continuous rebuild.
Gibson finds himself in a situation where Lukas Dostal is on the rise within the Ducks' organization and again a change of scenery may help revitalize Gibson's career with a team on a playoff-bound trajectory. Gibson seems to be at the center of a lot of current NHL trade deadline chatter and his movement out of Anaheim by the end of this coming week.