The Edmonton Oilers have one of the best top six in the league. And with the duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading from the front, their offense has helped them dominate teams across the NHL. But they have one glaring weakness.
Their goaltending has been their Achilles heel since their Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars and is a major reason behind their back-to-back Stanley Cup losses to the Panthers. But a recent stat shows just how bad the situation really is.
Latest Numbers Highlight Depth of Oilers’ Goaltending Woes
It is no news that finding a good goaltender has been the biggest priority, not named McDavid, for the Oilers. However, while the team has been trying their best since the start of summer, they have been unable to find an alternative for their nets.
And their preseason game against the Seattle Kraken once more exposed their goaltending struggles. Despite McDavid and Draisaitl on the top line, primary goalie Stuart Skinner once again struggled in front of the net as the Oilers lost the match 4-1.
But the latest stats from the NHL rosters show the depth of their woes. The tweet revealed the combined cap hits for goalie tandems across all 32 NHL teams. While other title contenders like the Dallas Stars had a sizeable $9.25 million reserved for their goalies, the Oilers lingered at the bottom.
With just $3.6 million reserved for the duo of Skinner and Calvin Pickard, the Oilers have the second-lowest-paid goalie tandem in the league. In comparison, their Finals rivals, the Florida Panthers, have the third-highest tandem in the league at $11 million.
Primary goalie Sergei Bobrovsky takes the bulk of that amount, with his current deal seeing him on the last year of a seven-year, $70 million deal with an AAV of $10 million. Daniil Tarasov, meanwhile, is signed to a $1.05 million annual salary.
Combined 2025-26 cap hits for projected goalie tandems:
NY Rangers – $13,050,000
Boston- $11,250,000
Florida- $11,050,000
NY Islanders – $11,000,000
Seattle – $10,900,000
Tampa Bay- $10,750,000
Anaheim – $10,750,000
Vancouver – $9,500,000
St. Louis – $9,400,000
Winnipeg -…— NHL Rosters (@NHL_Rosters) September 24, 2025
While some experts have criticized the Oilers for lacking playoff-caliber goaltending, others argue that Stuart Skinner is on thin ice. Last season, he was overwhelmed by the Panthers’ offense, allowing 19 goals in five games and posting a .888 save percentage.
The game against the Kraken on September 24 once put his performance into question as the duo of Ben Meyers and Logan Morrison dominated the goalie. Skinner ended the night with an SV% of 0.833 as he saved 15 out of the 18 shots on target.
Meanwhile, Seattle goalie Joey Daccord turned aside all 16 of Edmonton’s shots through two periods to secure a shutout stretch, while 1B netminder Nikke Kokko took over in the third and stopped 8 of 9 shots to close things out.
With Skinner showing little sign of improvement and the numbers highlighting just how thin Edmonton’s goalie tandem looks, some experts believe a mid-season trade could be on the horizon.
