Edmonton Oilers claim goaltender Alex Stalock on waivers

The Edmonton Oilers have claimed goaltender Alex Stalock on waivers.

Placed there Sunday by the Minnesota Wild, Stalock hasn’t played any games this season as he worked his way back from an offseason upper-body injury. A numbers game in Minnesota that’s seen Kaapo Kahkonen running away with the starters role and Cam Talbot and Andrew Hammond there to fill in the back up spots meant there was no room there for Stalock.

While he’s largely been a career backup goaltender, he’s done so quite admirably. He’s played in 151 games over the last nine seasons posting a 61-49-18 record with a .909 save percentage.

Last year he played the most in his career, 38 games, posting a 20-11-4 record and a career high .910 save percentage.

Stalock, according to PuckPedia, has one year left after this and only costs $785,000 against the cap. So a light cap hit and success in the past leads me to believe Edmonton could see him playing out the remainder of his deal here.

On top of that, the Oilers acquiring Stalock means the team has reached their expansion exposure requirement for the position. In the short-term? The Oilers could easily keep three goaltenders on their active roster given their willingness to place forwards on waivers for roster flexibility.