Shortly after the Edmonton Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in back to back seasons, many fans and media alike were connecting the club to any and all goaltenders in free agency and on the trade market. This is because of the highly publicized struggles that the Oilers have faced between the pipes, having to shuffle their tandem on a regular basis throughout the postseason.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch had to constantly go back and forth between netminders Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard. Both goalies struggled at times, sporting .889 and .886 save percentages respectively. They have been the two goalies for both Cup runs and for many, they feel they have met their expiration date.
It is clear that neither goalie is going to be winning a Vezina Trophy anytime soon but the Oilers have found success with both of them in net being the runner-up for a championship, two years straight. Although stacking them against Sergei Bobrovksy they look much weaker. Does this mean that the team has succeeded in spite of their goaltending woes or are they overblown?
How does the Oilers goaltending stack up leaguewide?
Using the regular season as the measuring stick, the Oilers goaltending last year was... Not good. They ranked 22nd in goals allowed while ranking third in shot attempts against, 11th in expected goals against and 24th in save percentage at 5-on-5 (according to evolving-hockey.com).
The crease was leaky to say the least but the playoffs surprisingly tell a slightly different story with the team ranking seventh in goals against and save percentage, while ranking ninth in shot attempts against and 10th in expected goals against. This means that the Oilers gave up less goals than expected in the postseason and that their goaltenders for all of the attention, did better than expected.
To counter, using another analytics model, the Oilers netminders looked quite poor in the playoffs.
Moneypuck.com ranks Skinner and Pickard 10th and 14th overall, respectively in goals saved above expected (GSAx) amongst playoff goalies who played five or more games. Though evolving hockey's model paints a much nicer picture with Skinner falling third and Pickard 11th in GSAx. Still, the problem persists with the team giving up a lot of shots and a lot of goals against, relatively speaking.
Given the sample size is not great for some teams being ousted in the first round and the pool being out of only16 teams, the Oilers are definitely not exceeding expectations with these statistics. In fact, them making it as deep as they did is a testament to their offense, which is top five in all of these same metrics.
Looking at the advanced statistics signals a deeper need for the Oilers defense and goaltending as a whole to be improved upon. So far, there has been little to nothing done in either of these departments and with the season right around the corner, the clock is ticking for Bowman, who recently sparked intrigue with his comments to make a move.
The Oilers are set to enter next year with basically the same defense and goalie tandem, with the biggest changes being made behind the bench to the coaching staff. Time will tell if this was enough or if the club does make another move to bolster their team on the backend.