Should the Oilers sign Thomas Milic as a free agent?

Considering the Oiler’s poor track record at drafting goalies – they’ve only successfully drafted four in their entire NHL existence (Andy Moog, Grant Fuhr, Devan Dubnyk, Stuart Skinner) – that they’d jump at the chance to sign Milic who should be an upgrade on at least one of our goaltenders down in the minors. But, it’s not quite that simple.

As you can see courtesy of CapFriendly, the Oilers currently have two undisputed options up at the top in Soup and Stew.

Below them is the #3 guy in Calvin Pickard, however, Pickard was faltering to start the season in Bakersfield as in his first six starts or so he had a GAA over 3.00 and a sv% below .900, but that being said it looks like he’s picked up his game in the interim. 2018 second-round pick Olivier Rodrigue had taken Pickard’s starter spot in the meantime, showing that he was taking a step forward with a sv% approaching .920 however that has since gone down to .909 – worth noting that it is still a career-best for Rodrigue’s pro career thus far.

So this leaves Condor’s head coach Colin Chaulk with the same dilemma as the Oilers have – with two capable goaltenders which one do you start from game to game? From a fan’s perspective, you could just flip a coin, although it would make sense to give Rodrigue more starts as he’s the guy the team is actually developing while Pickard is just insurance in case of injury.

With the Condors already with two capable goalies that only leaves the other goalie to get starts for ECHL Fort Wayne – Ryan Fanti, the man whose picture appears above.

Fanti was signed last March by the Oilers out of the US College system. He has so far had a rather dubious start to his pro career, as you can see by his stats. However, it’s worth noting that the sample size is very small – although Fanti has not gotten off to a great start in either the AHL or the ECHL, he’s only played a mere 16 games of pro hockey, hardly enough to condemn a man to the dust bin of history.