4 goalies the Oilers could acquire to help save their season
It’s officially a mess in between the pipes for the Edmonton Oilers.
The team is second-last in the NHL and just recently waived veteran goaltender Jack Campbell after he had yet another slow start to the season. It is now all up to sophomore netminder Stuart Skinner to pull things together for a slumping Oilers team on the verge of falling out of the playoff race in November.
The problem is that Skinner’s numbers have actually been worse than Campbell’s this season. The 24-year-old is among the worst-performing goaltenders in the league this year, ranking second-last in save percentage among goalies who have played five or more games.
AHL farmhand Calvin Pickard has been recalled to help back him up, but there are also plenty of question marks around his game as well. The last time Pickard appeared in an NHL game was with the Detroit Red Wings in 2021/22 when he put up a .875 save percentage through two games. There is no guarantee he will help the Oilers get out of their funk.
GM Ken Holland’s hands are tied when it comes to internal solutions, and unless he wants to eventually shove rookie Olivier Rodrigue into an NHL net, he will most likely have to scour the trade market if he wants to see any meaningful improvement.
Luckily, it does appear there are some options floating around the NHL that could be available, though the prices vary. Here are four NHL goalies that the Oilers could possibly trade for as they fight to keep their season alive.
Jake Allen
Team: Montreal Canadiens
Contract: $3.85 million through 2024/25
Age: 33
2023/24 Stats: 3-1-1, .927 save percentage
The Oilers have not been afraid to give the net to an aging goalie in recent years. The team acquired Mike Smith in 2019 when he was 37, so the Oilers may have had their eye on Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen.
Allen has had a bit of an up-and-down tenure in Montreal. Initially acquired by the Canadiens in 2020 in a trade with the St. Louis Blues, Allen has been more or less the team’s starter over the course of four seasons.
Despite playing well to start this season, Montreal may be in the market to trade him. The team currently has two other younger goalies on the roster, Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau, who need to get into games. Though Allen is playing the best among the trio, he may be the odd one out due to his age.
He might be one of the cheaper goalies on the market at the moment and could offer the Oilers a short-term solution as they wait for Skinner, and possibly Campbell, to regain form.
Linus Ullmark
Team: Boston Bruins
Contract: $5 million through 2024/25
Age: 30
2023/24 Stats: 4-1-1, .926 save percentage
Linus Ullmark may have won the Vezina Trophy last season, but it seems like the Boston Bruins aren’t interested in keeping him around as their de facto starter.
Instead, the 30-year-old has been sharing the net with Jeremy Swayman, who has been among the best goalies in the league this season with a 6-0-0 record and .952 sv%.
Though both goaltenders are playing spectacularly for the Bruins, there have been rumours dating back to the offseason that they were exploring the trade market for Ullmark.
The Oilers were reportedly one of the teams that took a run at Ullmark in the summer.
With the Oilers now in a position where it is obvious they need to upgrade their goaltending, it would not be surprising if Holland decided to pick up the phone and try to reignite trade talks with Bruins GM Don Sweeney.
There is one big sticking point that might be hard to overcome, as Ullmark currently holds a 16-team no-trade list, which could possibly have the Oilers on it.
A lot of moving parts would be involved in trading Ullmark to the Oilers. It would be a difficult move to pull off, but it might be Edmonton’s best chance to land a bonafide starting goalie they could rely on.
James Reimer
Team: Detroit Red Wings
Contract: $1.5 million through 2023/24
Age: 35
2023/24 Stats: 2-2-0, .944 save percentage
Moving back into the theme of older goalies who are off to great starts and may be cheap, James Reimer could possibly be an option for the Oilers.
As it stands, Detroit currently has three goalies on their roster: Ville Husso, Alex Lyon, and Reimer. Husso has gotten the majority of the starts, and Lyon has yet to play in a game with the Red Wings this season.
Logic would dictate that Detroit GM Steve Yzerman would prefer to trade out Lyon, but considering Reimer’s age and the fact that he is only on a one-year deal, perhaps Holland could convince his former mentee to part with him.
Even with all that, the Oilers may be smart to avoid Reimer. Last season, he made it into the headlines for all the wrong reasons after refusing to wear a Pride jersey in warmup for the San Jose Sharks.
If Holland and the Oilers are willing to look over the controversy that trading Reimer would bring, then he certainly could be an option.
Juuse Saros
Team: Nashville Predators
Contract: $5 million through 2024/25
Age: 28
2023/24 Stats: 4-5-0, .909 save percentage
It may be a pipe dream among a lot of fans, but acquiring Juuse Saros from the Nashville Predators remains a very interesting option that could be on the table.
Like Ullmark, Saros was among the very best starting goalies in the league last year. However, instead of playing behind the best regular-season team of all time, the Swiss netminder did it behind a Predators team that missed the playoffs.
This makes it all very confusing as to why Nashville would even consider trading Saros, but they reportedly received trade calls about him dating back to last season’s trade deadline.
New Nashville GM Barry Trotz has proven to not be afraid of making bold moves with his team. He bought out forward Matt Duchene over the summer and reportedly offered up top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov in trades to move up at the draft.
Though Trotz has previously told The Athletic‘s Pierre LeBrun that he would like to sign Saros to a long-term deal, there wasn’t an absolute denial that he wouldn’t consider a trade.
This is probably the biggest long-shot on the list, but the very fact that Nashville isn’t completely rejecting all trade talks with Saros should have the Oilers at least inquiring and trying to see if there is a path to deal between the two teams.
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