Goaltending tandem for the playoffs

Jack Campbell - waiting in the wings

Jack Campbell was absolutely struggling earlier in the season and even after his initial demotion to Bakersfield, however, his game has picked up over the last couple of months. He and prospect Olivier Rodrigue have almost split evenly the remaining games since Pickard was recalled to take Campbell's spot in the lineup, with Rodrigue getting 35 games and Campbell getting 31. Both players have done very well for themselves so far, but Campbell holds the edge in stats with an elite .920 SV% and a 2.58 GAA - which actually places him 18th in the AHL in GAA and a tie for sixth in the league in SV%. This is a man who has redeemed himself and deserves to come back up - he likely would've been already if not for the fact that the Oilers are doing fine without him also there's the matter of Pickard's performance, prompting GM Ken Holland not to mess with what by and large is a winning team.

More importantly, unlike Pickard, he actually has some playoff experience to his name. Campbell up to now has in fact played 18 NHL playoff games, two seasons for the Leafs and one for the Oilers. He was absolutely elite for the Leafs in one series and put in a dismal performance in the other, but redeemed himself as in limited time he put up a lofty .961 SV% and a stingy 1.01 GAA in last season's playoffs for the Oilers. Personally, I'd rather have that in my playoff lineup than Pickard, who we'll never know how he can handle the extra pressure and scrutiny of the playoffs, where the coach is also forced to give the players a lot less rope because the stakes are higher and there's a lot less margin for error. Now you know why Ken Holland likes his veterans so much - come playoff time they know how to play and what would be expected from them.

What about the cap space? I can see where the cap space issue would come from, but right now depending on when it's done we still have the cap space to absorb Campbell onto the roster without going over the cap. In fact, at the time of this writing the Oilers actually have accumulated just over $4.8 million of cap space per CapFriendly, and just for argument's sake, let's say they call up Campbell and predictably because no one wants to start over from scratch adding a $5 million cap hit to their roster and have to pay him that for three more seasons, he clears waivers and comes up as expected, for let's say game 81 of the season, which would be against Arizona on the 17th, a good game to let him get his NHL legs back. For those two games of the season, we would simply pro-rate his contract at a rate of $60,975.61 per game. Multiply that by two games and you get $121,951.22. That's a drop in the bucket, not even 10% of remaining cap space, so we don't have to worry about that at least for the playoffs - especially considering there is no cap in the playoffs, so once those two games are done you're home free and don't have to worry about it until after the season is done.

What the Oilers do with Jack Campbell after the playoffs are done is another question altogether, but honestly, in the short term, he's a better option to back up Skinner than Pickard is, because he's been there and knows what to expect, unlike Pickard. Pickard is a fine option for the taxi squad in the playoffs but not as a roster regular.

Campbell is my choice for backup goalie for the playoffs.

Olivier Rodrigue - honourable mention

Rodrigue, as I've mentioned, has platooned with Campbell in Bakersfield since last November, and Pickard before that. I wouldn't expect him to get anywhere near the playoff roster unless there's a huge rash of injuries in between the pipes where Skinner, Campbell, and Pickard all go down with injuries, which is unlikely. A 2018 second-round pick of the Oilers, Rodrigue looks to be the goalie of the future but doesn't seem to have a place on the Oilers in the present, which makes sense as again the Oilers are in win-now mode which is not the time to commit to an unproven prospect.

However, word on the street is Rodrigue has put himself into the conversation for at least one NHL start before the regular season is up. I'm sure if the Oilers had had more success at the beginning of the season they would've called him up for a start much earlier just to see what they have in him right now, but with the way they were struggling at the beginning of the season, there simply hasn't been that opportunity for him thus far.

At this point it looks like with five games to go and 10 points on the line, combined with the fact it looks like the Oilers are going to go for leapfrogging the Canucks for the division lead, means that if that happens in the next couple of games Rodrigue could get his callup prior to the playoffs starting, but once the playoffs start he would take his place on the taxi squad and watch it unfold before his eyes as a spectator. The Oilers are four points behind the Canucks right now with two games in hand on them and a game against them on the 13th. It will be key for the Oilers to win that one if they hope to get over the Canucks and win the division.

Rodrigue has worked his way into this conversation due to the fact that he's progressed from struggling early on in his pro career in the AHL as a backup to now as a 1A who is at least average with SV% going up and GAA going down. He currently sports two career bests with a .914 SV% and a 2.75 GAA. It wouldn't surprise me to see him as an Oiler in two seasons if he can take the next step and show he can be an elite starting goalie in the AHL next season.

Corey Perry - not so fun fact

Did you know that the Oilers could've had Corey Perry before he became an NHL regular in a trade back in the 2003-04 season? It's true.

Back then Mike Comrie, a local boy who had generated a lot of buzz early on in his career, was a top-six forward for the team and was sulking because he didn't have a strong training camp back in 2003-04 so public opinion was turning against him. Wanting a trade, Comrie had elected to hold out rather than report to the team after training camp, which of course prompted then GM Kevin Lowe to trade him.

Well, Perry - who was nothing more than a prospect at this time - was actually part of a trade package from Anaheim for Comrie that would've included their first-round pick in the 2004 draft as well. It was all set to go through.....and then GM at the time Kevin Lowe stupidly asked Comrie to voluntarily return his $2.5 million signing bonus back to the Oilers (probably just Comrie and his people hurt Lowe's ego). Naturally, Comrie refused, so that trade was nixed, with Lowe later having to settle for a lesser trade from Philly which ended up being a middling prospect and two draft picks for Comrie.

If only Lowe hadn't been so stupid, we could've won what would've turned into one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history. Perry would go on to become one of the NHL's best power forwards, and who knows who the Oilers would've drafted with that extra first-rounder (which was ninth overall, by the way), but the Ducks drafted Ladislav Smid, who would become an Oiler through a separate trade years later. The Oilers certainly could've used Perry's talents at forward during the decade of darkness as poor drafting had left them with nothing in the tank once it came time for a rebuild. At least with Perry in the fold at the time we would've been able to cheer for something, anything, instead of lamenting cheering for one of the NHL's worst teams during that period.

Meanwhile, Comrie would go on to have issues with injuries after he was traded away, and although he would do well in a mere two healthy seasons, in which he put up 30 goals and 60 points for the "Phoenix" Coyotes in 2005-06 and 21 goals and 49 points for the New York Islanders in 2007-08, other than those two seasons he never really played much more than half the season - sometimes barely even 25% of it - after he left the Oilers, and that includes a second stint here in Edmonton in 2009-10 when he played a mere 43 games.

Oh, what might've been, huh? Well, I guess Perry benefited by winning the Cup in 2007 with Anaheim. Too bad, it's very likely he would've been a lifelong Oiler if Lowe hadn't let his ego get in the way of a good trade.

Connor McDavid gets injured, Dylan Holloway called up

That article from the Journal covers it pretty well, so there's not much more to say, other than the fact that as far as I'm concerned anyone who thinks the Oilers no longer have depth needs to have their head examined. As expected, Leon Draisaitl moved up to the top line to center Nuge and Hyman, while Adam Henrique, who spent much of the season at first-line center in Anaheim, draws in for Draisaitl at second-line center.

McDavid may draw back into the lineup against Vancouver tonight but they're going to take precautions to make sure he's shipshape for the playoffs. As the Oilers proved in the great victory over an injury-riddled Vegas Golden Knights squad, they can play just fine without McDavid, although they're not going to trade him anytime soon.

Holloway was called up to take his roster spot and slide into the third line at LW and scored a beauty goal at the end of the game.

Sam Carrick and Cody Ceci will also be out with injuries for the game tonight. This means Derek Ryan draws back in for Carrick at fourth line C and Troy Stetcher draws back in for Ceci at second pairing right D.