Edmonton Oilers are preferred trade destination for goalie John Gibson: report
It doesn’t sound like the Edmonton Oilers are eager to upgrade their goaltending situation, but at least one goalie on the trade market is eager to join the team.
The Oilers have been running a tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard this season, and while those two have been serviceable to this point, there is a growing sentiment that Edmonton should maybe look to get a more established goalie.
Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson would fit that bill as he is a veteran of 500 NHL games and is currently ranked seventh among goalies this season with 14.6 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck. That is miles ahead of both Skinner and Pickard this season despite Gibson playing for a basement-dwelling Ducks team.
As it turns out, it sounds like Gibson has his eyes set on Edmonton as a possible destination for himself before the upcoming trade deadline. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman dropped this tidbit during the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast.
“One of the things I had heard during the season was that Gibson’s preferences were Edmonton and Carolina,” Friedman reported. “Someone told me there was some talk about the Oilers and Gibson… and the one thing I kinda heard was Gibson wants a situation where he is going to be [the starter].
“I don’t know if it’s still as likely as I thought it might’ve been early in the season.”
Gibson wanting to be the undisputed starter after a trade to the Oilers would seem unlikely. Edmonton has shown a lot of confidence in Skinner this season and is currently sitting third in the entire NHL with him between the pipes as the team’s starting goaltender.
It’s been a spectacular year for Gibson on the West Coast so far this season, but if he comes to the Alberta capital, it is much more likely that he will find himself in a similar situation, sharing the net with Skinner as he is currently doing with Lukas Dostal in Anaheim.
There is no doubt that adding Gibson would solidify the team’s goaltending and give them a much more proven tandem partner than Pickard. He is also the type of player that you can be confident about stepping in for an extended time in case of either an injury or a dip in performance from Skinner.
He may not get exactly the type of role he wants from Edmonton right now, but if he does wind up getting traded to the Oilers, Gibson would, at the very least, be on a team that could be lifting the Stanley Cup at the end of the year.
It takes two to make a deal, and it’ll be up to Oilers GM Stan Bowman on whether or not he wants to explore the possibility of bringing Gibson to Edmonton.