This is the December 2013 glance at Edmonton’s goaltenders. In January 2014, Craig MacTavish would do Devan Dubnyk a favour and send him on his way. Dubnyk was back in the NHL as a solid starter in time for the 2014-15 season. Here are Dubnyk’s season by season five-on-five save percentages, with NHL rank in brackets:
- 2009-10: .906 (DNQ)
- 2010-11: .921 (24)
- 2011-12: .926 (17)
- 2012-13: .923 (18)
- 2013-14: .902 (52)
- 2014-15: .936 (5)
- 2015-16: .933 (10)
- 2016-17: .931 (11)
- 2017-18: .930 (17)
- 2018-19: .918 (32)
- 2019-20: .903 (51)
- 2020-21: .904 (52)
So, to review, Devan Dubnyk was a promising young goaltender on the upswing as an NHL starter, then the “swarm” came. Once he was cast away by the Oilers (one could call it destroying the evidence of the swarm), Dubnyk went right back to being a fine starting goaltender. He faded when age caught up to him. Age and injury are the only other ways a goalie can hit a downbeat, aside from “the swarm” as seen here in 2013-14. Now, let’s run Stuart Skinner’s career the same way:
- 2021-22: .916 (DNQ)
- 2022-23: .926 (11)
- 2023-24: .913 (33)
- 2024-25: .902 (43)
So, what do we make of this? Is Skinner the 2022-23 goaltender who emerged at exactly the right time? Or is he the 2024-25 goalie who did not deliver. It isn’t age, it isn’t injury, and I haven’t seen the swarm (although the Oilers did some weird things defensively in the final).
My own feeling, and I’m not expert on goaltenders, is the workload is too much for Skinner. He would be better served by having a strong partner in goal, and player who might emerge as the starter to Skinner’s backup role.
Where does one find it? In the world of hockey goalies, you can wait for the San Jose Sharks to gift you Miikka Kiprusoff, sign an expensive free agent who is eroding, trade for someone’s second best, or roll your own.
Samuel Jonsson might be the answer, and he may arrive too late for the McDavid-Draisaitl era. I’d run Jonsson as my NHL goalie (in tandem with Skinner) as soon as he plays 20 quality games in the NHL. Colby Cosh once wrote about goalies peaking early as opposed to mid, and I’ve always felt that has some truth to it. Jonsson can stop pucks. What the hell else do you want?
It will never happen.
On the Lowdown today, we’ll talk goalies with Jason Gregor. He is suggesting an innovative way to develop and maintain all goalies in the system, and we’ll find out what it looks like. Also, Elks (argh), Jays (wow) and more, noon to 2pm on Sports 1440.
What role will Oilers defenceman Jake Walman play next season?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6491075/2025/07/14/oilers-jake-walman-stats-contract/
I was concerned when they started the playoffs without Ekholm. Then I was concerned when he came back into the lineup. His play was a big factor in their SCF lack of success, IMO. Walman was, on the other hand, a big factor in them getting as far as they did. I’m curious about Ekholm’s future w the club. I’m pretty confident -and excited about- Walman’s.
Injury aside, Ekholm is likely regressing in real time and its a good thing his contract is up after this year (I actually didn’t love the term on in on the date of trade….).
Presuming he can get back to a reasonable facsimile of the Ekholm we know (and recovery from major injury at that age is often short of pre-injury form), he should still be a solid 2-way top 4-damn this season but any future contract will need to in line with a d-man playing in to his late 30s.
There is a chance both Kulak and Ekholm are gone after next season. Kulak is likely to warrant like $5MM on the open market which is priced out of Edmonton, in my opinion.
We’ll see where Ek’s game is during the course of this season.
Ekholm may still be worth a year to year at a reduced rate. Also, perhaps he can transition into a coaching or PD role when he is done?
Think there is little to no chance ekholm wouldn’t be able to sign a pretty soild number x 3 years at end of this one. Like at least cevi money but likely more.
Presuming Ekholm is healthy and bears a reasonable resemblance to his pre-injury form, I think the initial d-pairs are clear and easy:
Ekholm/Bouchard
Nurse/Walman
Kulak/Emberson
Stetcher
Regula could make a case for a call-up in-season if he’s healthy and stays healthy – Lepanen a bit more of a wild card for me until I get eyes on him.
Nurse/Walman did very well together during the regular season and, with a LD needing to play on the right side, he seems like the obvious choice.
It still boggles my mind when they didn’t go to this during the playoffs – it seemed so obvious, no?
Clearly not obvious to Paul Coffey and Kris Knoblauch. They see more than any of us and have way more data as well. I might disagree with coaches decisions and sometimes they can be wrong, but I never assume that my point of view is so clear that the coaches must be completely missing something.
Could be the problem was that Kulak might not have been a good fit with Klingberg. Klingberg is 185 lbs and Kulak 192 lbs. They may not have felt comfortable having 2 light defenseman on a pairing if they can avoid it. Add in Klingberg, while he is a very good skater, he is not very fast.
Kulak and Klingberg played a total of 37 minutes together throughout the playoffs or less that 10% of Kulak’s total ice time and 10% of Klingberg’s. And if Walman was beside Nurse, that’s the pair they would be left with once Ekholm was back with Bouchard. They may have felt any drop between Kulak and Nurse compared to Nurse and Walman is made up by the greater strength of Walman Klingberg vs Kulak Klingberg.
I’m pretty tired of the Skinner-hating in the so-called Oilers fan base. I get it. Goalie is an easy target, and no one really understands anything about goaltending except that the other team “always” has a better one.
And I don’t understand the hate on the previous goalie coach either. Not much team spirit, for all the whining and blaming.
That said, I have a specific request of the new coach: show some Billy Smith and Ron Hextall “goalie-defending-his-crease” videos. Teach a few crease-defending tactics. Keep the head-crashing Rantenans and Bennetts & co. on their best behaviour when they are within striking distance of the goal stick. I want Oilers goalies to develop a rep. Maybe that’ll keep the concussions & twisted knees etc away.
On the Knoblauch call, no one asked him about Conor Allen, the new skills coach. There is likely a Stan Bowman connection to this hire. Allen is from Chicago and worked for Prodigy Hockey as a Skill Development Coach since 2021. Prodigy Hockey is also based in Chicago and includes Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat among its current and past clients along with players from other teams. Allen spent that last season as the skills coach for Team USA under 17 team. Bowman left the Blackhawks shortly after Allen joined Prodigy, but he would certainly have been very familiar with the organization since they have been consulting with the Blackhawks starting back in 2019.
Also of note on the call with Knoblauch, while discussing that Coffey will no longer be on the coaching staff, he indicated that Coffey is going back to his old role as an advisor with the team and Knoblauch will still be having discussions with him from time to time to get his thoughts on things as he sees them.
I am seriously puzzled why a post I drafted going over some of Paul McFarland’s coaching experience is awaiting for approval.
None of your posts are waiting for approval. The post in question WAS marked as spam. I do not know why.
On my end, it first had the red flag awaiting for approval (I can still see it, but obviously doesn’t show to others), then just up and disappeared. I see it is back now – thanks.
My first draft had a name that might be on the “no go list: but I removed it and it still showed that awaiting for approval before disappearing. How are we to know which names/words can’t be used.
It is difficult to know for sure. The problem is that conversations become untenable around certain individuals. Currently on the list:
Trudeau
Convoy
Katz
Trump
carter
hart
Carter Hart
are on the list.
And yet OKLA-HOMA still gets through.
A quick rundown on Paul McFarlane’s work as a PP assistant coach in the NHL.
McFarland spent two seasons under Bob Boughner with the Panthers 17/18 and 18/19. Both were let go together when a former Chicago head coach who can’t be named was hired. The power play improved both seasons that McFarland coached it. The season before he arrived, it connected at 17% and improved to 18.9% then to 26.8% in his second season which was 2nd in the NHL. The following season after he left, it declined to 21.3%. Their PP did give up several shorties, but apparently so did a lot of teams so they still had the 3rd best net PP.
After being let go by Florida, McFarland joined a former Detroit head coach for his short tenure in Toronto. McFarland stuck around for the remainder of 19/20 after Babs was replaced by Sheldon Keefe in November, but later announced he would leave the team after the season was concluded in the Bubble. The Leafs PP was 21.8% the season before his arrival, 23.1% while he coached it, and 20% the year after he left. Toronto was average in giving up shorties that season.
McFarland left to return being head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs, but the 20/21 season for the OHL was cancelled and McFarland jumped aboard the expansion Kraken with David Hakstol and lasted the same 3 seasons that Hakstol was head coach until replaced by Dan Bylsma. In his 3 seasons with the expansion team, the PP improved every season from 14.6% to 19.8% to 20.7%. It fell to 18.9% this past season with McFarland. Over his 3 seasons there, they gave up 25 shorties, which was somewhat above the league median of 21.
In summary, McFarlane never seemed to lose any of his positions based on his own merits, likely being the collateral damage of the head coaches who hired him being let go as well. His power play success rate improved year over year while he was in charge and outperformed the PP’s both the year prior to his arrival (except for Seattle where there was no prior) and the year after. The one drawback was his PP’s tended to yield a few more shorthanded goals against than the average in the NHL. But his team’s net PP was also still improving each season.
Thank you!
— I didn’t realize the goalie coach had been here a decade. Man…
— Just thinking of the goalies who left Oil to figure it out elsewhere ought to have been a hint
— who knows what goalie coaches actually do but seems like a very patient leash he was given
— shaking things up can help. They Jays new hitting coach : it’s night and day hitter’s approach they are just so much better collectively this year
— hopefully new goalie coach brings a new perspective
— rather than get rid of skinner assume they want to give a new goalie coach a chance. They need another goalie though IMO.
— I just do t get how they think Skinner after being the 2nd best goalie like virtually every playoff game with no game steals that I can think of comes back for a third time to redeem himself
— Cheaper to change to coach than the goalie?
Knob says that Stuart will bump up to main D coach and McFarland will “run the PP”.
Who’s running the PK and are they completely rebuilding it. Last season’s PK may be the worse I’ve ever seen.
If they trot out the “it was just the execution lacking” verbal..
Mark Stuart and Knob did say straight up they’ll be some systematic changes to it.
I see a 23 minute media avail with Knob. Will listen this afternoon on the treadmill but, for now, from Gregor:
“The most difficult part of our job is giving young players an opportunity to play, while also trying to hold them accountable and find that fine line where how many mistakes are allowed. We expect to have young forwards in our group. Howard is a very offensive player and we’d like to find him a role on the power play, probably on the second unit, and I really liked Savoie’s play on the PK in Bakersfield and he will get that chance with us,” Knoblauch on Howard and Savoie getting chances this year.
I hope coach doesn’t discount the likelihood that Savoie is just as offensive potentially as Howard and has produced against pros with little help at times.
He can be more than a third line PK guy.
agreed, likely just as if not more talented, but it’s starting to feel this coach has an impression and doesn’t change it???
OP will be on the TREADMILL everybody!!!!!!
Done now – I’m sure you were waiting to get verification.
In any event, any response to the hockey substance or was that the sole reason for logging in today?
Just logged in to follow your workout prowess!
What individuals say doesn’t mean shit. Let’s see what they do.
Gregor should have asked KK If he intends to give the 2nd PP unit actual PP time this year.
Oilers still have not figured out why they lost to Florida both years. Until they do, adding another goaltender will not be the difference.
Perhaps more than one thing can be correct: desire, grit, and poor goaltending?
Three steps to beating the very particular Florida Panthers: 1) Take more peptides as they do: recovery is huge during the playoffs; 2) PIMs might be even after 60 but it’s really helpful if you get a series of power plays before they do, so you can sit on a lead and wear down the Panthers who also haven’t taken as many performance enhancing drugs as you have; 3) Be around 12 million over the cap than they are.
There’s two parts, one Bowman is addressing/addressed, the wingers and more puck movement out of the D
The second for me is their system. Well maybe the players, mainly Connor and Leon, are not doing what needs to be done. They struggle against teams like Florida and always have, Florida is the best version of that. When teams give them any space it’s fine, if it’s really tight it’s forced plays and little pressure
Could be both things, probably is. It’s up to Knoblauch to figure out how to get to the next step. And then to get the players on board as to why they have to do it, and keep them on the same page. They have to work toward that goal all season
The Panthers success to me is about the coach, backed up by the GM bringing in the right players. Other than Barkov and Marchand who are great players, the roster isn’t special. Bennett had a run, but he’s not a great player, and if the Oilers had brought a tighter game would he have done that? I don’t think so, Marchand either
Bob can be great, but Bob gets a ton of support in front of him. Maurice gets the most out of the players he has, gets them all playing that style. And what he’s asking is bang on, apparently
This is my worry about KK. Can/will he figure out the solution, what to do to maximize his advantage, other than playing Connor Leon and Bouch together? Or is he stuck on his system, that has failed twice? Does he have the chops to get them playing to their best? So far not as I see it
And I don’t know the specific answer to the system changes needed, but he’s supposed to. I was disappointed they didn’t have a better plan for the Panthers this time. They were healthier, deeper, and worse. One player being hurt (Ekholm) shouldn’t weaken a finals team to that point. The Panthers don’t even have an Ekholm, or a Bouch. End rant 🙂
You overlooked Nuge’s broken hand and Hyman not being in the line up at all. Net result was Florida got to play with 20 players with a $93 million dollar cap hit, and the Oilers with around $81 million cap hit. And Seth Jones, Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling are top level NHL defenseman.
Florida had 9 players who played in the 4 nations cup – that’s a pretty stout team not including Ekblad or Jones. The Oilers had 3, McDavid, Ekholm and Arvidsson, with Hyman and Bouchard being in consideration but still on the outside (and of course Draisaitl wasn’t there only because he’s German) The Oilers could have won with some better execution (or perhaps some more stringent officiating standards – the refs only consistently call high sticks and over the glass and not stuff that actual impedes players).
Perhaps it was just Florida firing on almost all cylinders, and Edmonton not quite, or it is a bad clash of styles. But the Oilers can’t spend all next season focusing solely n what it takes to beat the Panthers. While they can’t ignore what Florida did to beat them, they also have to be sure they can still beat every contender in the West, which they have done the past 2 years, and there is no guarantee if they make the finals next season that it will be against Florida.
Agreed. Oilers were rolling. Got close. Will retool and be ready for whoever comes out of the East (unlikely that Marchand or Bennett have similar playoffs, even if Panthers get to the SCF in 2026).
Good rant. Didn’t feel all that “ranty.”
You missed: (as @Traveller notes) Hyman out; RNH broken hand. Also: questionable insertion of Ekholm. These are significant factors. Oilers had been getting better through the first three rounds; held their own in the beginning of SCF; were a healthy Hyman, RNH, Ekholm away from a Game 7, possible Cup win.
Evander Kane playing rugged and taking a penalty – this is bad, you are hurting the team, down to the 4th line for you.
Sam Bennett playing rugged and taking a penalty – this is good, exactly what we want you to do. We support you and will give you more ice time. Do it again.
The… the Conn Smythe winner??
A penalty…or 3 or 4.
Look at the special teams numbers for each team and there’s your answer.
Agreed. Kane playing carelessly with his stick when high sticks are pretty much the only thing being called (certainly not hits on goalies) was not the Kane that was needed against Florida.
A floundering PK was too often his gift to FLA. As if he were already playing for the division rivals…
One factor that everyone overlooks is that Dubnyk had his first baby in August 2013. I remember it well because I had my first baby in October 2013. I recall vividly sitting in the hospital with my wife as she recovered and reading the comments on this blog as Dubnyk lost his first five starts that season and allowed an obscene amount of goals. That first baby is a monumental change in a person’s life, and I completely understand and relate to what happened to DD that season.
Didn’t Skinner have his 2nd?
And a concussion?
Talbot’s game also bottomed-out after he gave birth to twins.
I thought that was his wife’s job? It’s a medical miracle!
haha fair enough
Postpartum life is anything and everything from rainbows to train wrecks, for either or both parents. With huge impact on professional life. I’ve yet to work with a man or couple who managed it without serious help. Or serious marital and/or consequences. Some do, no doubt. I’ve yet to meet them.
ps. It’s not just sleep, or lack thereof. Though that’s big. And it’s not something that money -even $Ms- will “fix.” Families (even professional hockey families) need patience and support. This is especially important if you’re growing a professional/team culture with long term success in mind.
Another was the change in regulations around goalie pads that offseason. He was an inch too short to keep his and lost like an entire inch off each side if i’m not mistaken. That had to be a nightmare for a guy’s 5 hole.
Say what? If he were a bigger goalie he gets to have bigger pads? Sounds crazy.
And yes, if that’s the case, what handicap, making that kind of adjustment.
Wheeler’s list of his top 100 drafted prospects just dropped.
Howard checks in at 49, Savoie 53.
Oh, and O’Reilly didn’t make the list at all.
Pretty encouraging words on our guys! Interesting to see that we have more ranked prospects than all of LAK (1), VGK (1), Dallas (0) and FLA (0).
Wheeler said the other day that he considered SOR for the 90s but he didn’t make it.
Looking at the 2024 list is interesting:
#26 – Lane Hutson
#42 – Matt Savoie
Not on list – Isaac Howard
Florida had 0 players on the list last year, and Samoskevich and Sourdif were their best prospects listed by Wheeler in 2023 … the number of prospects on Wheeler’s list doesn’t seem to have much correlation with winning Cups.
If we had peak Dubnyk we have 2 Cups and counting. Pickard saved our regular season then was the reason for getting by L.A and Vegas. His injury probably cost us the Cup as he was clearly in the zone until fukface accidentally purposely fell on him. Bowman has made done some shrewd moves he is not telegraphing his upcoming goalie trade and upgrade.
this post gets a thumbs up for description and emotion!
I’ve seen every goaltender from Dave Dryden to Skinner. Seen Sather go through 10 goalies in the first 2 years before hitting sevens on Moog. Seen Fuhr win it and Ranford steal the show. Skinner had 3 chances with a excellent team in front of him besides the 2 Dallas series which I give him full credit for he has been shaky as fuk needing reset after reset. If this is being mean to a millionaire that plays a kid game so be it but the bottom line is he doesn’t have it in to win it all.
I know the response is that they are professionals blah, blah, blah…but NHLers are also human.
I think that both of these goaltenders down years came with newborns in their homes. This can affect an athletes rhythm, and probably even more so at the goaltender position. I expect a rebound year for Stu.
I’ll also mention that although the Oilers did not employ the swarm this year, they did feel that giving up the cross-ice seam pass this past year (and in the playoffs) was a viable defensive formation.
The expectation that professional athletes are not affected by “real life,” whether it’s births or deaths, that somehow $M render them insensitive to what really matters, is both foolish and -from a win perspective- poor strategy. When team members are going through challenging times off-ice they need to be supported, not made a problem. This is a big deal in pro hockey. It’s an even bigger deal in real life.
I get the kid thing comes up a lot when talking about Oilers goalies, but has anyone actually looked at this across the league. I’d like to see stats for all goalies that have kids (focusing on first year post birth) to see if there really is something going on there rather than relying on anecdotal “baby was born, goalie had a down year” as being a thing.
Talbot had twins and had the best year of his life. Partners sacrifice so the athlete can be ready and insulated during the year.
It isn’t nothing, but every ex NHLer says its not bad (any potential complications aside).
I get that players are humans and things can affect them. But figure it out quick. Pressure and the need to perform come with the gigantic pay cheque
The one thing I’ve read that I don’t agree with is not being able to get sleep and decline in play over time. A league minimum player is paid over 1M dollars. The partners can have enough support if they are willing to pay for it. Nothing like what regular families experience
Nitpick: League min is not over $1MM
Other point: Players are humans and, while they can afford all the support you mention, perhaps they want to be “better dads” or “move involved dads”.
As I recall Talbot’s game fell apart after he gave birth to twins? Am i misremembering? I don’t know how to confirm, not knowing when they had them… but thats been hard wired into my memory for a while now. Unless by best year of his life, you mean, of his personal life, which could be the case indeed.
Talbot’s game fell apart after two years of 70 starts.
Google says October 2016 they welcomed twins. That year he had 73 starts and led the Oil to game 7 2nd round. That was when the gameplan was ‘let Cam stop a million and Connor win the game’.
I still believe they go to the final that year without Getzlaf breaking Seksy and the nonsense Game 5 ‘what are we gonna tell Corey’.
Alex I’ll take the threat of divorce messing your head for $1000 over the joy of having a child.
Young men tend to (IMO) stay focused on the prize, the goal when they are without distraction.
The suddenly there is girls. Then cars, booze and teenage distractions. Some youngsters stay wild for a while, others settle down quickly.
Getting married, having kids, and increased responsibility away from the prize does not breed the mindset of taking chances, risk, fighting, sacrificing your body with an “I don’t give a sh*t” attitude
Oilers are a high skilled gentleman’s team. That is great but it has come up just a tiny bit short When they do bring in a wild card, they tend to tame him down.
This is some pretty wild projection!
Not to mention your argument isn’t even cohesive from one sentence to the next. So are young men more focused than the old timers, or are they led astray by booze, girls and teenage distractions? I’m guessing the wild stallion-type you’re after would be a guy like Bennett, but what is it about elbowing a goalie in the back of the head that requires being a young single chap without kids? Outside of the cheap shots, I’d argue he didn’t play particular hard or sacrifice his body all that much.
I’d argue that the Oilers played plenty hard from top to bottom in the playoffs, beat three teams who were all considered contenders – while smacking down the two teams that were favorites over them to win the cup – then ran out of gas because they lacked fresh legs and young talent. The basic biology of age is more likely what did them in in the end, as opposed to any life responsibilities that players might have.
A Raffi Torres type can single handily win you a series just as much as a McDavid This is why the small fraction of effective Bennett’s are so coveted by many G.M’s
Sure. Just saying the effectiveness of these players likely has nothing to do with marital status or number of offspring
I will preface this comment by stating I am one of those fans that would prefer to have a whole new face in goal. Nothing against Skinner, but going to battle with the same tandem expecting a different result seems like…well…insanity.
Obviously there the problem is who would be available that would be a clear upgrade, not just a different face with the same concerns? The recent PIttsburgh trade has some noting that Jarry will be available as the Penguins are clearly rebuilding. He has a reasonable contract for a few years as well. If the Oilers could fit him under the cap, I wouldn’t be totally opposed, but I think this would have to be the 1A/1B scenario, and keep Skinner. Give them games 50/50 and see what happens…if Jarry regains his form then fantastic. If Skinner accepts the challenge and elevates, even better…
Not sure the contract is reasonable given his performance last year (and the year before – although he was over .900 in that year).
In any event, fitting in over $5MM would require something major (Pickard out opens up $1MM).
LT, you seem really high on this guy and may I ask why? I mean, how much can one glean from the Alsvenskan? Its not even SHL let alone AHL, right?
I’m currently a big fan of Nathanial Day – his pro start in the ECHL was absolutely sensational.
He’s a first year pro so likely years away, but I’m not sure that Samuel J. isn’t also years away, right?
I’m sure Jonsson is years away from the NHL. I am not certain he should be. The Allsvenskan is a league that deploys younger players, and many of those players have NHL futures. If Jonsson makes it from Allsvenskan-AHL-NHL he’ll follow a normal route (although most play SweHL, too).
I’m saying his numbers in the Allsvenskan were SO good there’s a good chance he will perform well in the AHL. That depends on the quality of the team in front of him but the Condors look encouraging.
Bakerfield looks to be a tire fire again. Jonsson should be left in Sweden, in the elite league.
Veteran defenders will be Riley Stillman, Cam Dineen, Josh Brown. Atro Leppanen should help the power play. If Alec Regula passes through waivers that’s a reasonable group, but whatever Akey and Carpagna can provide.
Center should be good, with Hamblin and Philp joined by Samanski and possibly Marjala in the middle.
Wingers include Roby Jarventie and Max Jones, plus Quinn Hutson and Matvey Petrov.
I expect some PTO’s in August who sign and are recall options. Nothing high end unless Savoie (unlikely) or Howard (also unlikely) play a large portion of the season there.
Better defense than a year ago. Center not as strong as last year but they were never healthy.
Do you know if there is an avenue for him to play material games in the SHL?
Lots of adds to Condors I’m excited about – looking forward to seeing Akey, Regula and Lepanen on the back end, for example – Hutson, Samanski, Clattenburg and some others up front.
Jarventie is the NHL ready start of the group.
I disagree on Bakersfield, they might have a bumpy start, but I bet they are top 4 in the Pacific Division. Lots of talent coming in and this is the AHL.
I just don’t understand the goaltending decisions.
Rodrigue was a top 10 AHL goaltender over the past 3 seasons. Tompkins is 6 years older and has an okay track record in 55 AHL games in the past 2 seasons.
He was obviously a back-up who also played in 6 NHL games. Rodrigue has played in 107 AHL games over the past 3 seasons.
It does appear that the runway has been cleared for Jonsson. Tompkins also has recent SHL experience (65 games). He also played for Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics. He was also a Bowman draft pick in 2012, funny how that is, eh?
Agreed, Rodrigue was tracking well until last year.
He was also tracking well early last season until the team got decimated and his game cratered with the team’s game.
I too was very surprised they moved on from Rodrigue – not sure what the deal was there – maybe they were doing the kid a solid to go find a place where he had a line to the NHL?
I still see:
AHL: Tompkins/Unger
ECHL: Day and Jonsson
Issue is both Day and Jonsson need to play more games.
You’d like Jonsson to come in and play 40-50 games for Condors. Not sure if that’s realistic, or the plan, but if he comes in and rips it up in the A, perhaps he gets a cup of coffee later with the big club later in the year.
It happens with other teams (Dobes in MTL, for example), why can’t we have one of those?
Now I’m wondering with SBGM’s history is with rookie goaltenders.
.914 games in 50 games is a very good season but he has not been able to replicate in 59 and 51 game seasons and, of course, his playoffs have been, uneven, in each of the 3 runs.
I think Pickard can play 30-35 games, like he did this past year.
Do we need someone to play even more?
Perhaps.
A few seasons ago Campbell appeared to be the safe starter and Skinner stole his lunch money and took the job. I credit the Oilers there for letting him run with it.
It seems like Jonsson needs a favorable injury though to get that chance.
Did Skinner steal his lunch money, or did Jack eat too much and puke it all over him self…not sure the Oil had any other option than to let Skinner run with it at that point…
more like OD’d on crystal meth in the janitor’s room
Skinner had a .914 in 50 appearances in his first full season.
I know nothing about any of these guys except McFarland was the Hitmen coach and Aubry was with Chicago (i.e Bowman relationship), per Oilers:
Coaching records at the bottom.
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=71775
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=67500
And if this is the right Conor Allen, here is his resume:
https://www.usahockeyntdp.com/roster_players/73964243?subseason=930044
Never say never – injuries could change things in a hurry.
That said, I’m glad we’re down to one Skinner.
“It will never happen.”
I read this as – I double dog dare you. 😃