Edmonton Oilers GM Bowman explains why he didn't trade for a goalie
The Edmonton Oilers have decided not to upgrade their goaltending tandem before the trade deadline.
For the second straight season, the Oilers will roll with Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard between the pipes. It’s a risky bet as both goaltenders haven’t looked great this season and have struggled to give Edmonton the consistent goaltendingĀ they need.
Instead, Oilers GM Stan Bowman went to work on other areas of his roster, bringing in Trent Frederic and Max Jones to add size to the forward group as well as upgrading the blueline with Jake Walman. Deadline day saw no new trades materialize.
After the deadline expired, Bowman met with the media to discuss his work and how he thinks this team looks just over a month away from the postseason. The first question he got was about the goaltending situation.
“With our two goalies, probably the last stretch hasn’t been their best, and that’s probably why there is a lot of attention,” Bowman admitted. “I try to look at things over the bigger sample… Our goalies didn’t get out of the gate strong [at the start of the season], and then from November until the end of January, I thought our goaltending was really solid.
“Ever since then, it hasn’t been as good.”
Skinner indeed had a great stretch of hockey between November and January, where he managed a 17-7-3 record and a .911 SV%. Pickard was also great during that period, putting up a 10-3-0 record and a .902 SV%.
However, the issue has been how they have been performing of late. Since the start of February, Skinner’s numbers have cratered with a 2-4-0 and .875 SV%. Pickard has been just barely better with a 2-3-0 record and .879 in that same span.
Those dramatic swings between the pipes are not what you want to see from your goaltenders on a contending team. When the playoffs come around, you want to be confident in what you are getting from those guys and the last thing the Oilers want to happen is another goaltending debacle like they had in last year’s second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks.
“We’re trying not to put so much pressure on [the goalies] so they have to save games for us,” Bowman said.Ā “I think we did a good job at that as a team for those stretch of months when our goaltending was performed well. I think our team game has escaped us a bit over the last probably five, six weeks, and as a result, it puts more pressure on your goalies.
“I’d like to see both things have a little bit of an uptick, the goalie’s performance as well as our team and not putting them in the position to have to save games for us.
With no new goalie to bail the team out, it will be up to Skinner and Pickard to figure things out. Whether that winds up being a smart idea by this management group will be determined by how long this team is playing into the summer.