The Edmonton Oilers’ goalie situation had long been the center of fiery public debates on social media, with fans and analysts alike chiming in with their opinions on the Oilers’ netminding. Stuart Skinner was at the receiving end of unforgiving and borderline cruel criticism each time Edmonton lost.
With Skinner gone and the Oilers doing well, even on the goaltending front. The question is, are the Oilers’ goalie woes a thing of the past with the Tristan Jarry-Connor Ingram tandem? They could be, but an insider has also advised Oilers management not to take the recent goaltending wonders for granted.
Thin NHL Goalie Market Could Adversely Affect the Edmonton Oilers
No matter how intense and unmanageable the social media trial for Skinner got during his time with the Oilers, the contentious goalie was not, in fact, rendered jobless when his time at Edmonton concluded. In a significant development on the goaltending front for both teams, Skinner was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in return for Tristan Jarry.
Despite several Oilers fans’ firm belief that Skinner was responsible for many, if not all, of the team’s losses, the netminder’s prospects did not seem half-bad, and that is a perfect example of the NHL’s thin goalie market. For this reason, Chris Johnston believes the Oilers’ management should not put Calvin Pickard on waivers, despite the team’s recent success with Jarry and Ingram.
“Right now, if you’ve got a goalie, hold on to them closely. I mean, even Edmonton, right? Tristan Jarry has gotten healthy there now. They have Connor Ingram up from the AHL and Calvin Pickard as well. Like, I think they are going to roll with three for the time being, because, you know, it would be risky to even put Pickard on waivers, I think at this point in time,” Johnston explained in a recent episode of the Chris Johnston show.Â
Putting Pickard on waivers would, as Johnston believes, immediately cause some team or another to pick him up, given the thin market and many teams’ struggles with their existing goaltending situation, either on the health or performance front.
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“I think the likelihood would be high that he would be picked up, just because there are teams with a need and between either health issues or performance concerns with one of their existing players,” the insider explained, concluding his argument.
Of course, the case also remains that Pickard has proved himself to be useful in certain circumstances and remains popular in the Oilers locker room, further reducing the likelihood of him being placed on waivers right now.
