Is John Gibson the goalie the Oilers have been looking for?
The Edmonton Oilers need to bring in another goalie to help them out this season.
Though they have found some recent success and have clawed themselves back into the playoff picture recently, subpar goaltending has held them back significantly. Despite a recent eight-game winning streak, the team is still under .500 and is still chasing multiple teams for a playoff spot.
The offence is buzzing, being first place in the entire league in expected goals-for, but their team save percentage is second-last in the NHL. Stuart Skinner has shown, for stretches, that he can be a good goalie for this team but right now he lacks a proper running mate to take the pressure off him when he falters.
Veteran goalie Jack Campbell looks like he’s regressing in the AHL and callup Calvin Pickard isn’t moving the needle enough. The Oilers need a veteran goaltender with a proven track record of recent success to help them steady the waters between the pipes.
They need someone like longtime Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson who, coincidentally, might be available.
A quick look at Gibson’s numbers over the past few years won’t blow you away. He has averaged a .903 save percentage over the last four seasons and has a pretty terrible-looking 6-13-0 record so far this season. But that has a lot more to do with the team in front of him than himself.
The Ducks have been awful for about the last six seasons and haven’t even gotten close to the playoffs since 2018. With all that in mind, you would expect Gibson, who has been the team’s primary starter during all those years, to have horrific stats, but he doesn’t. Instead, he has been a pretty average goaltender all things considered, which is kind of impressive.
Despite a poor record, analytics website MoneyPuck has him ranked 29th among all NHL goalies in goals-saved above-expected (GSAE) at 3.3 this season. To put that into context, that is 17 spots above Pickard (-0.6) and a whopping 51 spots ahead of Skinner (-11.4).
He’s done that on a much worse team, which indicates those numbers could be even better if he got some help from the players in front of him. The Oilers’ team defence has been porous this season, no doubt, but there is no question that Edmonton is a much better-structured team than the Ducks right now.
There is some difficulty in the Oilers potentially acquiring Gibson. For one, the 30-year-old goaltender carries a $6.4 million cap hit, which would require a lot of maneuvering from Oilers GM Ken Holland to fit. Ideally, trading Campbell would help that along but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the price to do that is getting higher by the second.
There is also the fact Gibson has a modified no-trade clause in his contract, which includes a 10-team no-trade list. Considering Edmonton’s struggles this year and the apparent disdain some players have for the city, the Oilers may be on that list.
If the Oilers and Ducks can get past these problems, there is still the manner of the asking price, which is sure to be high. This would be an in-division trade for both teams, which means the Ducks might be asking more from the Oilers than they would for a team like the New Jersey Devils, who play in the Eastern Conference and also have reported interest in Gibson.
Would Edmonton be willing to part with a first-round pick plus two of Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Xavier Bourgault, or Beau Akey for Gibson? It would be a steep price but, as the team continues to have goalie struggles, it might be something they have to consider.
At one point in time, Gibson could have been considered one of the best goalies in the NHL. After a few years of his team underperforming, he has been able to maintain a respectable and consistent level of play. He could be exactly what the Oilers need right now, but it will require a lot of work and a lot of assets to make it happen.
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