Bottom line
With these two moves the Oilers accomplish a lot of things they need. The current age average of their goaltending is 36. That’s too old.
With these two moves – even with elder statesman Fleury in tow, the Oilers move that down to 31.5.
I don’t know about you, but that has me breathing a lot easier.
The Oilers also upgrade their talent level. Georgiev has warts in his game but is a good bouceback candidate with a change of scenery. He’s got elite level starter capability, but he’s not going to reach that in New York. It’ll likely be somewhere else, why not here?
Meanwhile Fleury has proven that, even at 37 years old, he’s at least still an NHL average goaltender at worst and still an elite goaltender at best.
This tandem, IMO, is what Koskinen-Smith was supposed to be the last couple of seasons.
It works out great cap wise too. Even taking Fleury’s bonuses into account, The Oilers would still be spending only $5.1675 million at worst on their goaltending tandem, and $4.66675 at best if Fleury doesn’t make his bonuses.
Either way it’s still much better than the $6.7 million they’re paying now for the inferior tandem of Smith-Koskinen. That cap space will be vital for what we need to do this offseason and beyond.
Better talent at a lower cap hit? That’s a GM’s dream.