What Should The Edmonton Oilers Going To Do With Goaltending?

New Jersey Devils score a goal on Edmonton Oilers goaltender Mike Smith (41) Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
New Jersey Devils score a goal on Edmonton Oilers goaltender Mike Smith (41) Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
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Mikko Koskinen

Edmonton Oilers Goalie Mikko Koskinen #19
Edmonton Oilers Goalie Mikko Koskinen #19 Mandatory Credit: James Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports
Last 5 Games Table
Goalie Stats
Rk Date Tm Opp DEC GA SA SV SV% SO PIM TOI
1 2022-02-20 EDM MIN L 3 15 12 .800 0 0 46:17
2 2022-02-19 EDM @ WPG W W 2 24 22 .917 0 0 60:00
3 2022-02-02 EDM @ WSH W W 3 27 24 .889 0 0 60:00
4 2022-01-31 EDM @ OTT L-OT O 3 31 28 .903 0 0 64:02
5 2022-01-27 EDM NSH W W 2 30 28 .933 0 0 64:53
2021-22: Complete Gamelog | Splits

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/24/2022.

In his last 5 games Mikko Koskinen has averaged a save percentage of 0.898%. If you take the game where he came in as relief for Mike Smith that average jumps up to 0.911% over those other 4. The 0.911% is a good number for the Oilers especially when comparing it to Mike Smith’s numbers.

NHL Standard career statistics
Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal
Season GP GS W L T/O GA SA SV SV% GAA SO MIN QS QS% RBS GA%- GSAA adjGAA GPS
2021-22 28 26 17 8 2 85 839 754 .899 3.13 0 1628 11 .423 5 111 -8.7 3.32 3.8

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/24/2022.

So far this season Koskinen has really struggled with inconsistency. When he is on his game he is a quite effective goaltender. This includes the losing streak in December. Most of those losses were tagged to Koskinen. I don’t understand why most of the fan are down on Koskinen. We knew what he was coming into the season.

He is a goalie that can play well if he is given adequate rest. When he struggled this season is when Mike Smith was out and he was forced to make the majority of the starts. That is not his fault that Smith got hurt. Going into this season we thought Smith would get about 60% of the starts and Koskinen would get about 40%.

The fact that Mike Smith has either been injured or is playing poorly has added to Koskinen’s load. This needed to be spread out better between him and Stuart Skinner. Skinner has had the best numbers so far this season, so why not use him.