The Jack Campbell Situation
At the start of the season, the Oilers’ fans were excited to finally have a new goalie. Jack Campbell was set to be the unquestionable first choice after signing a 5-year contract with 5M AAV. The team finally expected to have some peace in this position, with the rookie Stuart Skinner being his backup and getting his game better with time.
But the Oilers are now in the mid-season and things didn’t exactly go that way. Campbell has already lost the position as the main goalie to Stuart Skinner, who is just in his first full NHL season and his stats don’t seem to improve after each new chance he’s getting between the pipes.
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Right now, Jack Campbell has 16 games with the Oilers (for comparison, Skinner has 23) and only in 6 he has a save percentage above .900%. In December, he played only 4 of the 15 Oilers games in the month. With that, he currently has a save percentage of .876% and 3.90 GAA, which are his worst numbers since he got to play full seasons in the NHL.
But is the 11th overall pick of the 2010 draft a bad goalie? Absolutely not. But the Oilers can’t expect him to be a Vezina candidate as well. And the fault isn’t entirely his, because no goalie would have an easy life with the poor defence the Oilers currently have. Even Stuart Skinner, who is excelling at it, has some tough days at the office.
And the Oilers aren’t the only team in the Pacific Division to face some goalie worries. As the teams who are fighting for a playoff spot, the Los Angeles Kings had to send a goalie to the AHL. The two Seattle Kraken’s goalies have a sv% below .900%. Even the Calgary Flames have Jakob Markstrom, their Vezina Trophy winner having only .895 sv% and his backup Dan Vladar posting better stats, but with half of the games.
But how to make Jack Campbell play his best once again and rely on him for the remainder of the season and eventually on possible playoff games? By now, there are three main options on the table.