It’s time for Stan Bowman to look at his club, look at the Florida Panthers and subsequently the Stanley Cup he failed to touch once again, call his dad’s old team, and make a trade for a goaltender that is just good enough.
Not one that will break the bank and give the Oilers more cap problems than they already have, but a goaltender that’s more reliable than the ones they do—two backups trading starts in the Cup final because, unlike the Panthers, there is no clear-cut choice.
Not that Bowman would ever say it in so many words, there is a culture surrounding goaltenders and the media after all, but a simple acknowledgment would do.
“I don’t want to single the goaltending out,” rushed Bowman when asked how aggressive he’d be in pursuing a new goaltender. “I think it’s just something that we’re going to look at.”
Umm, let’s try again.
“It’s a great discussion point, and I think it’s what the media and the fans love to talk about,” began the GM. “I get it. I understand that. We’ve got to take in that information and sift through it and come up with a plan, and that’s what we’re going to do over the next few weeks and months.”
Let’s be clear: Stuart Skinner is still 26 years old. Plenty of time to grow into a quality and reliable goaltender, just not one the Oilers need.
Calvin Pickard has always been a backup, one that, by most standards, has outperformed the expectations placed on him this season.
And the Oilers are still a good team—hello, back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup final—but bringing in someone new in front of an aforementioned goaltender makes a difference next year, or the year after, or the year after that.
Whatever it is, it might just be what keeps Connor McDavid around for another eight more.
“Connor’s the best player in the league,” continued Bowman. “Most important player in the league. He’s our captain. He’s our leader. So certainly, he’s the number one priority.”
The captain wants to win, it’s what will keep him an Oilers, and as he said during his year-end press conference, if he feels there’s a winning formula, “then signing is no problem.”
“Now is the time when you have to look at your forwards, your D and your goalies, and see, how can we get better?” added Bowman. “And sometimes it’s just an incremental difference. I wouldn’t expect wholesale changes. We’re not going to have nine or 10 new players.
“More likely, the forwards and the goalies are the ones we’re going to evaluate the most deeply.”
And with that, Oilers Nation exhaled.
Back to the beginning then, why should Bowman phone his dad’s old club, the Montreal Canadians?
If there’s one thing the Oilers don’t have that the Canadians don’t need, is draft picks (Montreal has seven picks in the first three rounds), prospects (Laval is buzzing with players ready to make the leap to the pros), and goaltending (two bright, young stars in Jacob Fowler and Jakub Dobeš, as well as Sam Montembeault).
Good luck getting Kent Hughes to part ways with the young guys, but Montembeault could perhaps be described as just good enough. Let’s not forget, the Canadians could still hold onto Cayden Primeau in the minors.
Montreal’s return?
Pickard to replace the goaltender they lost—an older one for the young guys at that—and Vasily Podkolzin—a young player that can fill a roster spot now, and speak Russian to Ivan Demidov, Montreal’s superstar.
Don’t underestimate the value of these off-ice advantages for a team swimming with more goaltenders than they need. What a nice problem to have. And enough prospects for the big club and the farm team. Again, what a great problem.
“The reality of the world is, it’s not like you just go down to the corner and pick up an elite goalie,” began Bowman, who agrees that an elite goaltender is a) one the Oilers can’t afford, and b) not readily available. “They’re not just waiting for you to join your team. And then even if you look at the guys I think were considered the elite, some of them have had some tough playoffs.
“So there’s no guarantee in the goaltending world. It’s simultaneously the most important, but it’s also, in some instances, not why teams win.”
Perhaps.
A mid-range goaltender with a mid-range salary, behind two of the best players in the world? Those guys win.
Of course, Bowman could always phone the St. Louis Blues and make the trade for Jordan Binnington that we were all pondering at the trade deadline.
Sidenote: Imagine a goaltender like that, around a team like Florida.
But then the Oilers are paying $6 million a year for Binington, instead of $3.15 million for Montembeault.
Cap space, more than anything, will haunt the Oilers.
That’s the price of having the two best players in the world; Bowman has to pay them and put someone just good enough behind them.
