Pickard becomes first Edmonton Oilers goalie since Grant Fuhr to hit specific playoff record
A team having a goaltending crisis in the Stanley Cup Playoffs? It couldn’t be the Edmonton Oilers.
All eyes were focused on the Edmonton crease when the playoffs rolled around this season. Neither Stuart Skinner nor Calvin Pickard was seen as the kind of goaltender who could backstop a team to a Stanley Cup victory.
That appeared to be the case early on, as Skinner was atrocious to start the playoffs, allowing 11 goals through the first two games against the LA Kings. With the Oilers’ starting goalie looking beat, nobody assumed that the journeyman backup could come into the series and make any meaningful difference.
Not only did that turn out to be wrong, but Pickard has helped to completely revitalize this Oilers team and is now leading all playoff goaltenders in win percentage. The 33-year-old now has a perfect 5-0 record (1.00 winning percentage) in the 2025 playoffs, making him the only undefeated goalie left in contention.
That perfect playoff record also stands tall in Oilers franchise history as he joined Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr as the only other Edmonton goaltender to start a playoff year 5-0.
Calvin Pickard is the first Oilers goaltender to begin a postseason 5-0 since Grant Fuhr in 1985 pic.twitter.com/27SzG1N26G
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) May 7, 2025
Pickard picked up four of those wins against the Kings in the opening round and added another with Tuesday’s Game 1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. He improved to a career 6-1 record playoff record after splitting a pair of second round games against the Vancouver Canucks last season.
In Fuhr’s case, he won three games against the LA Kings in the first round (a best-of-five back then), four more against the Winnipeg Jets in round two, and then an additional two in the Conference Final vs. the Chicago Blackhawks. So, Fuhr effectively had a perfect 9-0 start to the 1985 playoffs before eventually losing Game 3 to Chicago in the Conference Final.
Of course, Fuhr and the Oilers went on to win the Stanley Cup that season. The NHL record for an undefeated streak in a single playoff is 11, and it is shared between Ed Belfour, Tom Barraso, and Patrick Roy.
Pickard still has a bit of way to go if he wants to tie Fuhr’s Oilers record, but nobody will be complaining about his play through five games.