What a signing: Edmonton Oilers have made another excellent trade

The talk surrounding the Edmonton Oilers has been about which goalkeeper they could get ever since they sent Jack Campbell to the American Hockey League (AHL) after ultimately growing tired of his play in goal. We’ll look at a number of choices, both good and bad, presuming that Campbell is not given one more shot to play in the NHL with the Oilers and the management decides to acquire a goalkeeper to support Stuart Skinner.

As with every season, there will be some goalie turnover, but the Oilers need it to happen a lot sooner than anticipated. In the past 12 games and 14 of the previous 16, Skinner has been the starter. He was anticipated to be the backup and receive approximately 25 starts even before the previous season. Skinner ended up starting 48 games while earning playing time and because Campbell failed the Oilers in the first year of his contract. Despite the fact that both were having a difficult season, it was clear that Campbell should go. There is a lot of faith in Skinner, who is still the goalie of the future. This is demonstrated by the fact that the group is still without a goalie and

Although it wouldn’t hurt to acquire a starter at the proper price and cap cost, the Oilers don’t necessary need one. They need someone who can, at the very least, share the workload with Skinner, take some of the stress off, and give Skinner some downtime. During the 2023 playoffs, we witnessed directly what happened to the young goalie who was overworked. He had a lot of difficulty. After Campbell was relegated this season, the 25-year-old sophomore took over all of the responsibilities. But since the Oilers will probably need to acquire a new goalkeeper through trade, we’ll examine the best options available and the possible blunders they might make.

Oilers’ Top Goalie Choices to Acquire in 2023-24

VCarter Hart and Juuse Saros are the top players the Oilers could be able to steal from other teams; the latter is the more likely choice. The Philadelphia Flyers’ players, new management, and the team’s actions all point to the need for the team to carry out a thorough rebuild rather than just selling away players and getting worse. Sadly for the Oilers, the Flyers have performed well under John Tortorella and have worked hard this season, finishing third in their division with a 13-10-2 record. The Oilers require a speedier solution in net, even if there is still a long way to go until the trade deadline. When Hart is playing this well and the team is winning, I don’t see him being traded unless

The Nashville Predators’ general manager, Barry Trotz, appears to want to retain Saros for as long as feasible. If I were the general manager of a team that is close to making a run at the playoffs and has a Vezina-caliber goalkeeper in his prime on the roster, I would do the same. Last season, the Oilers and Predators executed a significant trade including Matthias Ekholm, Tyson Barrie, and other players at the trade deadline. Now that Trotz is the general manager instead of David Poile, things might be different.

It appears that more people want to keep Saros in Nashville than want to keep Hart in Philadelphia, despite the fact that the Predators aren’t performing as well as the Flyers. It is quite tough to trade top-tier goalies, so both of these excellent choices would be fantastic if they didn’t cost the Oilers more than they should have and could be acquired quickly.

The other four players that the Oilers should target are Mackenzie Blackwood, Petr Mrazek, Elvis Merzlikins, and either James Reimer or Alex Lyon, depending on whether they are starters on their current teams or split time.

At the bottom of the standings are the San Jose Sharks. In his team games, Blackwood is winning, and they are beginning to close the gap with some of the other bottom feeders. Given their awful roster and poor start, the Sharks aim to finish last and acquire the best player available for a number of years. It will be harder for them to win games the sooner their best goalie is traded.

Blackwood has a very strong save percentage (SV%) and quality start percentage (QS%) while playing for the Sharks; he is signed through the 2020–21 season and doesn’t have a large deal. The team would also be able to bring back Jack Campbell. They ought to keep selling everything they can. They have already done so. Under Kris Knoblauch, Edmonton’s defense has improved recently, but even in moments of weakness, Blackwood is accustomed to playing for the Sharks.

Given that his career has seen more ups and downs than most, Mrazek is an interesting case study. He drew my attention since he has performed admirably for the better part of the last season on a very bad Chicago Blackhawks club. Trades are nothing new for the Oilers and Blackhawks, and just like the Sharks, the Blackhawks have cap space to acquire Campbell from the Oilers. Since Mrazek has a larger cap hit than Blackwood, acquiring him should be slightly less expensive.

After the season, Mrazek will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA), thus renting him at a.899 SV% shouldn’t be too expensive. The.899 SV% isn’t terrific, but on a poor club like the Blackhawks, it’s not terrible either. His QS% is a solid.615 as well. To put this in perspective, Skinner owns eight of the nine QS% for the Oilers, who have a combined.409 QS%. The Blackhawks may deploy Campbell, who needs a fresh start, or they could try out one of their young goalies.