The COVID announcements are coming fast and furious today, but one is an especially important absence. The Edmonton Oilers have placed Stuart Skinner in the protocol, meaning he won’t get another chance to steal the net this week. Edmonton will have to go back to Mikko Koskinen and Ilya Konovalov as Mike Smith remains injured and Alex Stalock is just starting his comeback attempt.
Skinner, 23, was the subject of much frustration over the weekend as he allowed five goals to the Ottawa Senators in a brutal loss for Edmonton. The Oilers entered the third period up 3-1 on the 30th-ranked Senators, but ended up losing 6-4 after a powerplay tally from Josh Norris put Ottawa on top with just a few minutes remaining. While Oilers fans seem mostly willing to give Skinner a pass, for now, the goaltending situation has been a firestorm all season as the team tries to find a way out of their current freefall.
The Oilers are 3-10-2 since the start of December and have allowed at least four goals against in nine of those games. They now are set to welcome in the red-hot Florida Panthers on Thursday, a team that has scored 50 goals in its last eight games (6.25 per game). Koskinen, who hasn’t won a game since the first of December, will need to carry the load until Skinner or Smith return.
This morning, Ryan Rishaug of TSN reported that Oilers general manager Ken Holland and his management team are currently in California at pro scouting meetings, and suggests that no “significant change is imminent.” Holland explained during a press conference last week that the team can’t just burn through coaches, and even suggested that he doesn’t necessarily believe in firing a coach midseason. Rishaug notes that those thoughts still hold true, despite head coach Dave Tippett’s struggles to find any consistency among the group.
After blowing the third-period lead against Ottawa, captain Connor McDavid was at a loss for words when trying to answer questions from the media. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet called it a “thousand-yard stare” from McDavid on today’s 32 Thoughts podcast, as the superstar was once again facing reporters after a disappointing loss.
The Oilers have shown obvious interest in signing unrestricted free agent Evander Kane, though his status is unclear due to a new investigation from the league. Kane’s addition would certainly bring another offensive piece to the group and Edmonton isn’t as far out of the playoffs as they could be, given how poorly teams in the Pacific Division are playing. It’s goaltending (and defense) that obviously needs to be answered though, as no Oilers netminder has a save percentage over .907 this season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
The only two things that MIGHT save the Oilers season…
1) Beg Marc Andre Fleury to come to EDM (unlikely) and pay Chicago’s rental price and do it now.
2) Offer Boston Koskinen and a draft pick good enough to make Boston willing to part with Ullmark and bury Koskinen to recall Swayman and do it now.
They don’t just need a goalie upgrade, they need a goalie who has proven he can play behind a bad defense because they don’t have the time or assets to upgrade both the D and the netminding. MAF and Ullmark are the only ones who might be available.
Ullmark has a no movement clause so he’d have to agree
I’m Ullmark and Rask is here for one year…i’m staying in Boston.
Rask said he wants to keep playing and he’s already done the hard part (rehabbing his hip back to NHL game level) so no reason to think he can’t.
The choice between 1 of a 3 headed monster in Boston vs. starter on a team with the two best players in the world…and Scandinavians don’t mind playing in Canada, unlike many Canadians.
I signed a deal to be in Boston…why would I, a few months in, decide that I’d rather face 10 high danger scoring chances a night? Maybe have a save percentage of .900 if I’m lucky.
Then I get to go home to my awesome home in Edmonton Alberta?
Or I live in Boston…a short ride to many other cities, and enjoy the coast.
I’m going to bet he says no to being traded.
Even if you could get Ullmark to waive his no-movement clause (and with what as an incentive?) what would Boston possibly want with Koskinen? An underachieving goalie with a large cap hit? If they wanted to bury a goalie with a $5 million hit in the minors, they’d have done it with Ullmark instead of Swayman, who had been having the better year.
That’s one. Two is this: like so many other teams, Edmonton HAS NO CAP SPACE. They have to move out salary to take any on. I agree that Fleury would be a good look for the Oilers, but that’s a $7 million cap hit. Who exactly could Edmonton move out to meet that? Koskinen himself … who has a NTC? Heck, many of the higher priced guys on the Oilers’ roster have no-move or no-trade clauses: Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, Klefbom, Koskinen.
Sooner or later, the GMs in this league are going to have to come to terms with the painfully obvious fact that as long as they spend up to the cap each and every year, their room for maneuver is crippled. They can’t deal with injuries if no one has cap room. They can’t take on rentals for playoff rushes if no one has cap room. They can’t patch up over underperforming starters if no one has cap room.
“…and a draft pick good enough to make Boston willing to part with Ullmark and bury Koskinen to recall Swayman.”
Boston’s best tandem out of the various configurations is Rask/Swayman. They get to clear a $5 million cap hit and ice their best tandem. It’s win win for them.
Zero chance Ullmark would rather ride buses than play with McDraisitalVid once Boston is off the table.
I had assumed you meant NTC because I assumed that no GM would give a mediocre goalie a NMC, but…I just checked and huh…
B’s fans complain a lot about Rask and a lot about Sweeney.
They complain WAY TOO MUCH about one and somehow still not enough about the other.
He knew Rask was coming back…he said as much at the time. What a bizarre and desperate move when he could have run with Swayman and Vladar.
Alright, same plan then but with Swayman and I’d need at least a first and then a mid round pick, too.
Either way, carrying all 3 is a mistake for a team with holes.
Well … he HOPED Rask would come back, maybe, and do well after the long rehab. Nowhere near a guarantee.
But the mistake was signing Ullmark instead of sticking with Vladar. Vladar actually did well in Boston last year. His numbers were distorted by an ugly game where the Bruins’ defense was devastated by injuries and COVID: McAvoy was out, Carlo was out, Grzelcyk was out, Miller was out, Moore was out, and everyone acknowledged that Vladar was the sacrificial lamb … Boston’s defensemen that night were Ahcan, Kampfer, Lauzon, Tinordi, Zboril and Clifton — when Connor Clifton is your #1 defenseman, you are in big trouble — and one wit for a local newspaper had the result as “Washington 8, Providence 1.” That one game was responsible for half the goals Vladar gave up last season.
Start with firing Holland
and fire his boss Bob Nicholson, who has no clue what he is doing as well…
To add to @forwhomjoshbelltolled’s points – I would think Flower’s opinion of possibly playing in EDM should have changed for the worse. Holland made a huge mistake by both trading for Keith AND not demanding and getting retention by CHI. Keith had the leverage to make Bowman’s life miserable, not the other way around. EDM’s scouts are still getting the wrong types of guys to be in the bottom six. On most nights, they seem to be fanboys of 97 and 29, instead of players. Mike Smith’s contract was going to be a dicey proposition at best, and now looks awful. Koskinen’s weak-glove-hand-itis has made him almost untradeable. Marek and Elliotte made great points in the first hour (Marek’s show on SN590) on this by reminding everybody that Ken had a situation in DET that was basically 180 degrees from where EDM is now. He doesn’t have the depth and skill there to rot guys in the AHL for several years. They don’t subscribe to the ever-increasingly-popular idea of fast-tracking young D prospects. And, I, personally, don’t think Tipp is the right guy to “coach ’em up.” But, I definitely don’t believe Babs would be any better, either. And, they must stop relying on the “you owe us 10 PPs a night” crap. Campbell and the Peterborough Mafia have decided they (and other complaining teams) will be jammed this season for that insubordination. Another valuable year wasted for Connor and Leon.
It’s not the goaltending that is THE problem. It’s not the defensemen that are THE problem. It’s the team defense. It’s systems. Which come down to coaching. fire the entire effing coaching staff and management. From Bobby Nix to whoever replaced Joey Moss
@wreckage – I honestly don’t think Joey was replaceable. It’s too bad his presence can’t be felt by the team. Maybe then, they could collectively pull their heads out and get back on the rails. And, you are spot on by stating that overall team D is the problem. They have been backpedaling for some time in that phase of the game.
Edmonton needs to come to terms with the fact they will never win with Ken Holland at the helm. He single handedly ruined Detroit with bad hockey decisions and bad contracts his last five years there. He was done at being an effective GM but Edmonton took the bait based on Holland’s accomplishments many years ago. Holland will never make the astute and necessary moves to turn Edmonton into a Cup winner.
Holland and Tippet need to go. They more than any other team need to go full analytics to change something up. Wasting the prime years of Mcdavid and Draisaitl with terrible moves like Cody Ceci and Duncan Keith is not acceptable.
Oilers owner and “fanboy of the 80s Oilers” Darryl Katz needs to come out of hiding and fire Bob Nicholson and Ken Holland before Drai and Mcd ask to be traded…..sad times