News and notes on the Oilers: Woodcroft out, Knoblauch in
By Phil Gretzky
Potential goalie trades for the Oilers
Rumor has it that the Edmonton Oilers are interested in Jordan Binnington from the St. Louis Blues. They’ve also inquired with Nashville on Jusse Saros and with Montreal on Jake Allen. These rumors make sense from an Oilers’ perspective, as goaltender is an area they need to improve on.
Jack Campbell will have to go the other way in any trade made for either of these players, as they’re all making about the same amount of money. Allen is the cheapest at $3.85 million but he’s also the oldest at 33, which means he’s hardly the ideal candidate for the long term.
I have a feeling the Oilers will go hard after Carter Hart from the Philadelphia Flyers in the offseason. Hart is from Sherwood Park so the Oilers are his hometown team, and he’s a great goalie playing on a lousy rebuilding team in Philly.
I would radically suggest that whether Campbell continues to struggle or not he’s a much better fit in Philly than Hart at this point in time, as a rebuilding team wants to lose and right now Campbell will help a bad Flyers team lose.
Look at how badly John Gibson has been cooked playing in front of a rebuilding team in Anaheim, they pretty much ruined him. The Flyers will do the same thing with Hart if they don’t move him. If Campbell is traded to Philadelphia since they’re rebuilding anyway, the team wins whether Campbell succeeds or fails there. Failure from the goalie will result in a higher draft pick, which is what they want. Success gives them an excuse to unload Campbell for more draft ammo at the next draft.
The cost on top of Campbell would likely be quite high so I think these rumors are just that – rumors. A trade in net is likely a deadline or offseason move for the Oilers.
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In the meantime
The goaltending has struggled this season in Edmonton, both Stuart Skinner and Campbell alike, along with all the skaters. Campbell is the bigger cost ticket, though, and you know no one was taking on that contract so he was waived and unsurprisingly cleared waivers to go down to Bakersfield and work on his game.
The struggles of the goalies are no surprise to me right now as the skaters have hung them out to dry way too often, which is why I blame the skaters much more than the goalies.
Where the goalies own their performance is that neither Skinner nor Campbell have stolen a game for the Oilers so far this season, something that is key to a team having success in both the regular season and the playoffs from time to time.
Campbell is now in Bakersfield and he’s continuing his struggles there, putting up a 4.00 GAA and a .826 save percentage in two games with the Condors so far. No good, but of course an early sample size. My understanding is goaltending consultant Sylvain Rodrigue (yup, Olivier’s dad) is based in Bakersfield so let’s hope that he can fix whatever is wrong with Campbell, because the Oilers have a year to go on James Neal’s buyout and if they have to add another buyout cap hit to the situation that’s no good for anyone.