Edmonton Oilers Free Agency: Top 3 Goalies Worth Signing

Darcy Kuemper

The biggest fish in the goaltender UFA market is Stanley Cup winner Darcy Kuemper. He is the top option in my opinion for the Edmonton Oilers in my opinion. Ken Holland has a history of bringing in players with a history of winning. Kuemper has a very recent history of winning.

The Edmonton Oilers missed out on Kuemper last offseason and I think it would be a mistake if they were to miss out on him for a second time. Kuemper was able to take a Colorado team that had been struggling in the net for the past couple years and take them to league champions.

This is exactly the scenario for the Edmonton Oilers. They have a good offensive team, but they never have had a goalie to trust in the net. The last few season they have had Smith who either plays really good, or plays terrible. If not Smith they had Koskinen who may have played really good, but he never played really bad.

Kuemper gives the Oilers a goalie who has a very constant average over his career has averaged a 0.918 SV%. In his last 4 seasons he has had a SV% of 0.921%(COL), 0.907%(ARI), 0.928%(ARI) and 0.925%(ARI).

The fact that he was able to put up SV% north of 0.920% the majority of time is something the Edmonton Oilers need. If Kuemper can put up a 0.928% with the Arizona Coyotes he can certainly do it with the Edmonton Oilers.

The only issue with Kuemper is he is the best available goalie in this UFA group. Free agency is a place where top players go to get paid. This is the only reason why I think the Edmonton Oilers may look at another option as opposed to Kuemper.

I think Kuemper may be looking at getting more than $6 million. I just don’t think the Edmonton Oilers can afford to do that. Yes they got more than $20 million of cap space, but that cap space also needs to clean up things up front.

If Kuemper is willing to take a bit of a discount then I think the Edmonton Oilers will be a good fit. If he doesn’t I hope that Holland only looks at giving Kuemper big money if he is the only option left on the board.

Jack Campbell

This is the goalie that I think is the most likely to become an Edmonton Oilers player at the day. He is a perfect balance between skill and cost. He may not be the best goalie available, but he will be the most economical.

Campbell has played the last few season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he was the starter the majority of the time. Unfortunately for him the Leafs were never able to make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

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With the Edmonton Oilers recent playoffs success he may be able to take a slight discount to come here for a chance to lift the Cup. This is something that the Oilers playoff run did for the team. High end players may actually want to come here because they have a chance to win.

Not only will high end players want to come here to have a chance to win. There is also the Connor McDavid factor. When you have McDavid there is not only a chance to win games, there is the potential to get lots of points.30

The same goes for goalies. When McDavid plays a third of the game odds are the puck will be in your end less. This means less shots on net which means less goals against. Do you really think that if Mike Smith played anywhere else he could end up with a 0.915 SV%? I don’t think so.

Another thing about Campbell that makes him a leading candidate for the Oilers is that he comes from playing in a Canadian market. He understands how much pressure is on a team to succeed and he handled it well in Toronto. Plus Toronto is the worst place when it comes to pressure.

If I was to put a bet on which goalie the Edmonton Oilers sign it would be Jack Campbell.

Ilya Samsonov

Ilya Samsonov is the third slide for a reason. He is the lowest option in my opinion. While he will likely be the cheapest to sign he is also the least proven goalie on this list. One positive of Samsonov is he is young.

If you are able to lock him long term there is a chance that he becomes a solid NHL starter. If he ends up being a bust though the Edmonton Oilers will still be looking for a goalie. This could be a good gamble though.

If you ask me personally, depending on how much Samsonov wants to sign for perhaps you could sign him to be your back-up goalie. This way you have a proven two NHL starting goalies.

For example if you sign Jack Campbell as your starter and have Ilya Samsonov as your back-up this would be one of the better one, two punches in the NHL. In this day and age in the NHL you either need a future Hall Of Fame goalie to play 60+ games or you need two solid goalies. One to play 50-60 games and the other to fill in the rest.

With the signing Ilya Samsonov you would definitely be leaning towards a 1A/1B versus an 1 and 2. I just think if the Edmonton Oilers start next season with Ilya Samsonov and Stuart Skinner as their two goalies, they will be in trouble.

The Edmonton Oilers during this offseason need to make a big slash in the goalie market and to me Ilya Samsonov just isn’t a big slash. If the other two listed above go get snatched up though, Ken Holland would be smart to at least get a proven starter.

Ilya Samsonov has the potential and has shown glimpses of flare. They are only glimpses though. The Edmonton Oilers are in a spot where they need more than glimpses they need to have a proven player.

Wrap it up

The main point this offseason for the Edmonton Oilers is to get better and hopefully make it further in the playoffs. Adding a proven goalie is one of the biggest parts in that step. I thought last offseason was the most important, but this may be more important.

They made it to the Western Conference finals this past season, now the only way to improve is to make it to the Stanley Cup Final. This is a tough league to win in, so hopefully Holland makes the right moves to improve the roster.