Edmonton Oilers newly acquired goalie, Tristan Jarry was born in Surrey, BC and played for the Edmonton Oil Kings from 2011-12 to 2014-15 seasons. He had a lot of success with Oil Kings winning the Memorial Cup with them in 2014.
In the 20 seasons he has been playing goalie dating back to junior seasons with the Edmonton Oil Kings, he has had 16 seasons of GAA below 3.00 and save percentage above 0.900 (for 80 percent of his career).
This includes a GAA of 2.38 and save percentage of 0.913 during his tenure as an Oil King and winning the Memorial Cup in 2014. He has one season with the Oil Kings playing 27 games with a GAA of 1.61 and save percentage of 0.936.
In comparison, Suart Skinner has been playing the goalie position for 18 seasons that dates back to his junior seasons with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. During these 18 seasons, he has had 10 seasons of GAA below 3.00 and save percentage over 0.900 (for 56% of his career). His best year was in 2021-22 season with the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League (AHL) with a GAA of 2.21 and save percentage of 0.920.
So, if you go by career performance statistics that includes their junior seasons (that may indicate consistency and reliability), Tristan Jarry can be relied on to give you GAA below 3.00 and save percentage of over 0.900 for 80 percent of the time vs 56 percent of the time for Stuart Skinner.
This is a very revealing statistic that will hopefully be true this year. With the scoring abilities of the Edmonton Oilers, the team is fully capable of scoring 3-plus goals a night and win games with a goalie that can give you a GAA of below 3.00 over 80 percent of the time.
Goalie stats favour Jarry being the better goalie
There are a variety of ways statistics can describe hockey ability and there are many sites that have similar or their own measures of data for hockey abilities of teams and players. Skinner has a career record of 109-62-18 with a career goals against average of 2.74 and a save percentage of .904 in 197 games. Jarry has a record of 162-100-32 with a goals against average of 2.74 and a save percentage of .909 in 308 games. So, very similar with statistics for wins and losses. Jarry has more NHL experience with 308 games played.
Numerous other notable differences (data from the aforementioned sites above):
1. Quality start % represents a measure of the percentage of games a goalie achieves a good game. In other words, it is used to suggest that a goalie has saved more goals than expected in a percent of his starts. The numbers calculate to 54% for Skinner vs 83% for Jarry (hockey-reference.com)
2. Goals saved above average per 60 minutes (GSA/60) is a measure of a goalie’s performance compared to the league. It measures the number of goals a goalie saves, taking into account the quality and quantity of shots faced and compares it to the average performance of other goalies. For what this statistic describes, the GSAE 60 is 0.31 for Skinner vs 0.75 for Jarry (some sites put Jarry at 0.91);
3. Among the 38 goalies who've faced 100 or more high-danger shots, Jarry ranks 8th with .939, and in the 84th percentile is close situations. This means when the game is tied in the first or second period, or within one goal in the third, Jarry appears to be very good in pressure situations when the game is on the line. During the playoffs, when goals are hard to come by and games are close, he is expected to make that important next save. Skinner ranks much lower than Jarry for both medium and high danger saves (NHLEdge.com)
4. The High Noon Ranking score (High Noon – Adjusted Hockey) was created as a Hall of Fame tool to decide on who should enter from year to year. It uses box score versus advanced statistics data to assign scores to players. For goalies, it is based save percentage, shots faced and minutes played. With the exception of last year, Jarry has been in the top 15 for two years prior to 2025 while Skinner has been in > 20th spot in any given year;
In most categories used to compare goaltending statistics, Jarry comes out ahead of Skinner, in some cases by a wide margin.
Fun facts about Tristan Jarry
Jarry is tied for 2nd place with Hall of Fame goalie Tom Barrasso for most shutouts with the team with 22. Marc-Andre Fleury has 44 shutouts with the Penguins.
He won the Hap Holmes Memorial Trophy in 2016 for the best AHL goalie while playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Notable other winners were Matt Murray (Pittsburgh Penguins), Ben Scrivens (Edmonton Oilers), Pete Peeters (legendary Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers goalie), Gerry Cheevers (legendary Boston Bruins goalie) and Johnny Bower (legendary Toronto Maple Leafs goalie). So, he has won the award given to many legendary goalies!
He has played with future Hall of Famers and Hart Trophy winners Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh. He is now playing with future Hall of Famers and Hart Trophy winners Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid in Edmonton. Jarry is also wearing #35, a number wore by the Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup winning goalie Andy Moog.
Will Jarry perform well in the playoffs?
Jarry had his first win the Edmonton Oilers against the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 13th. We all hope this is the first of many wins by Jarry. The one category where is does not superior statistics is playoff wins/experience. Stuart Skinner has far more Stanley Cup Playoff experiences with 50 games played versus 8 by Jarry. However, Jarry played a lot of playoff games as an Edmonton Oil Kings (27) and won the Memorial Cup in 2014.
Thus, Jarry can perform in the playoffs. One can argue that Jarry has less Stanley Cup Playoff baggage to deal with (vs Skinner with being pulled in several series over 3 playoff years) and will be focused on getting Edmonton to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Many have commented that Tristan Jarry is a technically sound, positionally strong goaltender that is calm and has sharp lateral movement to make saves. Watching him play as a member of the Oilers vs Toronto on December 13th, it was refreshing to see an Edmonton goalie stand up to players and not quick to drop to save a goal like Skinner often did.
Jarry likes to face the shooter and show patience when challenging shooters. As he gets to know the defensive core of the Oilers, I think he has more experience than Skinner to adjust his approach to goaltending to be a better goalie for the Edmonton Oilers. Time will tell and as we approach April, the fans will make their judgement on whether getting Jarry was just lateral move or an upgrade. Statistics would suggest an upgrade but we all wish him well as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.