The Edmonton Oilers goaltenders could be different in the near future

By now most of the NHL already knows the Edmonton Oilers’ weak spot is in goal. Due to the skaters in front of them, they’ve been able to survive without stellar goaltending for the most part, or should I say at least one goalie struggling for them since Mike Smith garnered Vezina votes for his performance last season.

If the Oilers were still rebuilding, there’s no way a duo of Smith and Koskinen would fly, as they’d be left to face a barrage of shots as meat shields for the NHL’s superior teams. Fortunately, the Oilers are past the rebuilding stage so this is no longer an issue.

If Stuart Skinner can follow up his breakout season last year with another elite AHL season then that time could come as early as the end of this season. If Skinner does make it up here that would be awesome as it would be the first time a homegrown Oilers goalie has made the pros since Devan Dubnyk (unless you count Jussi Markanen and his whopping 4 games in the AHL, which I don’t).

So Skinner may make his way up, but there’s also his soon-to-be partner in Bakersfield, Ilya Konovalov. He has years of experience in the KHL and rumor has it that he has the talent to make the NHL now, all he needs is some North American experience to adapt to the smaller ice surface and the faster NHL game and then he’s good to go. There’s no telling how long that will take but it could be as soon as this season.

So, that’s two internal options already.  I’ve already touched on a trade for Anton Khudobin here, and also the option of going after Jake Oettinger in free agency.

Koskinen’s contract is up after this season, and I can’t see him coming back unless he knocks everyone’s socks off and wins the Vezina Trophy this season. He’ll be replaced first. It shouldn’t be too hard to find an upgrade on him who’s younger and with a cheaper cap hit.

Mike Smith is harder to predict, but I suspect his age will catch up to him eventually, and thus he’ll be the longer-term guy who gets replaced. That won’t be for at least two seasons, though, so it’s hard to predict if, when, and how that will be done.