I’ve said this before, but part of the reason I wanted a new Oilers starting goaltender (beyond his play) is that I was sick of talking about him and sick of the discussion surrounding him.

The Skinner topic became exhausting. Every game became a fiery debate on Skinner, the goaltender. This flaw, this save, back and forth. If the Oilers lost, the anti-Skinner screamed his name in infamy. If the Oilers won, the pro-Skinner crowd would go, see!

Because that’s who Skinner was, sometimes good, a lot of times shaky.

It was clear – it was time. Far too many times, a bad goal against deflated the team. This move was about restoring confidence to the skaters, not resumes or statistics, although Tristan Jarry’s are consistently better than Skinner’s.

I was skeptical a goalie swap would happen during the season, but GM Stan Bowman pulled the trigger, and now the team can turn the page.

Did you find yourself a bit more at ease watching the opposition fire pucks towards the Oilers’ goal on Saturday night? I did. The lack of theatrics required to make a save was refreshing.

I do wish Skinner well. He’s a good guy and easy to root for, as did many thousands in Oilersnation. But one has to think a trade is in his best interest, too.

So long, Stu.

Bowman’s wager

With that said, the Oilers lose the trade in terms of today’s value for players.

Now let me be clear: just because the Oilers overpaid doesn’t mean the trade won’t work out for Edmonton. But as we stand today, the volume of what they gave in the trade is uncomfortable, due to Tristan Jarry’s term and no money retained from Pittsburgh, plus the loss of Brett Kulak, not to mention a draft choice.

You don’t get good players for free, though (unless it’s Vasily Podkolzin from Vancouver), and the wager by Bowman that Jarry playing in front of this Oilers group will see his play improve, already above his current numbers, is not a terrible one.

The Jarry element of the trade isn’t the sticking point for me.

Kulak hard to replace

Losing a defenceman like Brett Kulak on the surface shouldn’t be so concerning, but through his tenure, Kulak has been an enormously valuable piece.

He never missed a game, playing 370 regular season and playoffs. He was often the lynchpin of a pair, saddled with a rookie or young defender learning their way. But most importantly, he was a failsafe if someone in the top-4 was struggling defensively.

Namely, Darnell Nurse and Jake Walman.

There’s been the suggestion that you can just “find” a “bottom pair” defenceman easily.

Sure, you can. However, Kulak in the most pivotal games, wasn’t used like a bottom-pair defenceman.

You can make the case that outside of Evan Bouchard, Brett Kulak was the most important Oilers defenceman in last year’s final, with the inconsistent play of Nurse and Walman, and Ekholm still labouring from injury.

Games with more TOI in SCF than Walman: 5
Games with more TOI in SCF than Nurse: 3
Games outside top-4 D in TOI in SCF: 1

Only three times in the 22 Oilers games in the 2025 playoffs did Kulak play fewer than 20 minutes of ice-time, and that was by a total of 61 seconds.

Here’s a view of the entire playoffs:

Games with more TOI in playoffs than Walman: 20/22
Games with more TOI in playoffs than Nurse: 8/22
Games outside top-4 D in TOI in playoffs: 1/22 (six seconds behind Nurse in Game 2 SCF)
Games with top-2 D TOI in playoffs: 7/22 *indicates times led TOI for D
- Game 4 OT comeback vs LA
- Game 5 LA*
- Game 5 vs VGK
- Game 2 vs DAL
- Game 5 vs DAL*
- Game 3 vs FLA
- Game 6 vs FLA

Now, Mattias Ekholm was injured for most of the playoffs, but Kulak almost always played more than Jake Walman, who must now perform in crunch time as a top-4 defenceman in this current lineup. Kulak sure had a way of being more trusted in these do-or-die situations a third of the time more than Nurse, despite earning a third of the money…

Stastney could be a piece

I’m not saying Kulak is the world’s greatest defenceman. Certainly, he was struggling this season. He’s an unfortunate casualty due to his low salary and unprotected contract.

But my point is, he was no ordinary “bottom pair” defenceman.

I am optimistic about Spencer Stastney. Ty Emberson seems to be playing a nice, quiet game. Alec Regula has his ups and downs. But the 5th, 6th, and 7th defencemen for the Oilers are now totally unproven in big moments.

Something to monitor as we traverse this long and winding road…

Hinging the right way

To the actual games. I labelled the seven games following the November road trip as the Oilers “hinge” part of the season.

Despite a real mixed bag against the Buffalo Sabres – who are helped by the Hockey Gods against Edmonton because we won the Draft Lottery for McDavid and they didn’t – the Oilers played some tidy hockey to finish this stretch.

Record during the Hinge: 4-2-1.
Record this week: 2-0-1
Oilers record vs the East: 9-6-3
Oilers record in second of back-to-backs: 0-2-3

Don’t look now, but the Oilers have points in five straight games. They play the Montreal Canadiens tonight, who gagged one away to the New York Rangers in overtime.

All six goals in the 6-3 win at Toronto were at even-strength. The 5-on-5 offence is going. Said another way, the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl lines are dominating.

Since the Dallas debacle, the Oilers have a 22-11 advantage at 5-on-5, a tidy plus 11 goal differential in seven games.

We’re going to see Calvin Pickard tonight.

Those reports of the Oilers wanting a Jarry-Skinner tandem did not come to fruition, and the question of whether Calvin Pickard is still viable looms. I believe in my heart of hearts we will see Connor Ingram in an Oilers sweater. But maybe it’s not until after Christmas.

Four straight on the road this week:

Montreal on Sunday
Pittsburgh on Tuesday
Boston on Thursday
Minnesota on Saturday

Canucks ‘retool’

Farrah Fawcett died the same day as Michael Jackson. Aldous Huxley died the same day as John F. Kennedy. Tristan Jarry was traded the same day as Quinn Hughes.

Or something like that.

A real stunner of a hockey trade.

Regardless, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Hockey Night in Canada that Hughes told management around US Thanksgiving he wanted a trade. While Canucks fans are rightfully gutted, they got a damn good haul for Hughes.

You’ll never “win” the trade when you deal one of the best defencemen in the league. But like many, I am bullish on Zeev Buium. Marco Rossi is 24-years-old, coming off of a 60-point season, and is signed to a team-friendly $5 million contract. Those two, plus a 1st-rounder and a former 1st-rounder in Liam Ohgren, and it’s a haul.

Organizationally, the Canucks failed Hughes, yes, but this trade is probably the best they could’ve hoped for.

What would concern me to the nth degree if I was a Canucks fan, would be the number of times general manager Patrik Allvin used the word “retool” in the follow-up press conference. I counted at least three times.

The Vancouver Canucks have been retooling for a decade. The issue was that they believed in one good season over the many bad seasons. Yeah, they had the Oilers on the ropes in 2023. But that was a tippy-top ceiling performance from everyone involved.

They have to rebuild, which makes the recent extension of a player like Brock Boeser all the more mind-boggling.

Wild and reckless?

I wrote during the Kirill Kaprizov contract craziness that the Minnesota Wild get to escape the wrath of hockey trolls because Minny doesn’t have that sexiness in the NHL. If they did, a thick wall of loser-doom would surround them.

Bill Guerin hasn’t won a playoff round since his tenure began in 2019. The Wild have lost eight straight playoff rounds. Since the 2004-05 lockout, they’ve won just two playoff rounds.

Folks. These are Calgary Flames numbers.

The Wild went on a massive heater in November to salvage their season and sit six points back of the Stars for second in the division. It’s not crazy to see them leapfrog Dallas.

But the pressure is on.

Guerin may have been making meatballs when he got confirmation of the trade, but he’s going to look like one if the Wild lose in the first round of the playoffs, and Quinn Hughes doesn’t re-sign.

Poor Buffalo

It’s just a matter of time before GM Kevyn Adams is sacked in Buffalo, no?

Matthew Fairburn and Tim Graham, Sabres reporters at The Athletic, published an article saying the Sabres are having internal discussions about a change.

Winners of their last two, Buffalo wraps up a road trip Sunday against the Kraken.

He’s been in the chair for five-and-a-half-years. It’s time.

But it’s also a situation where you can’t fire the owner, as much as the issue might lie upstairs. Vancouver is in that same boat, too. The two franchises entered the league together in 1970 – no Stanley Cups.

How bout a shot

Briefly, because I’m running out of eggnog here:

Jeff Marek suggested on X last night something interesting. He brought up how from 1934-35 to 1941-42, the NHL would award both a penalty shot and a two-minute power play on penalty-worthy plays during a breakaway.

This harkens to a thought I’ve had for a long time. A penalty shot might not be so beneficial at times. Whether it’s because you have a weak goal-scorer taking the shot, or that team’s power play is better, sometimes it feels like a penalty shot benefits the penalized team. At least, it does in junior.

I like this idea, but NHL refs seem reluctant to award penalty shots as it is. Adding a two-minute power play on top of it makes me believe refs would never award a penalty shot, knowing how they like to manage games.

I said this in reply to Marek, and within moments the Rangers were awarded a penalty shot. Artemi Panarin made no mistake. So it goes.

Record scratch

Also, Winnipeg Jets owner Mark Chipman has asked the league whether they can combine the old Jets records and the new Jets records, instead of Jets/Coyotes and Thrashers/Jets franchise records.

It only makes tons of sense, which is why the NHL probably won’t do it.

That said, I don’t hate this situation. There is something to the achievements of the relocated teams. Cue up Dale Hawerchuk’s jersey retirement in Phoenix one more time…

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