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Edmonton Oilers sign Jack Campbell to five-year, $5-million AAV contract

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Photo credit:John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
1 year ago
It’s official: Jack Campbell is an Edmonton Oiler.
The deal will see him play in Edmonton for the next five years with a $5-million AAV, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
The 30-year-old has now followed ex-Toronto Maple Leafs teammates in Zach Hyman, Cody Ceci, and Tyson Barrie out west. Now, Campbell joins an Oilers squad in need of a starting goaltender to work alongside Stuart Skinner.
Nicknamed Soup, he will get the majority of the Oilers’ games moving forward as he comes off an up-and-down season in which he played 49 games. In them, he posted a 31-9-6 record, a .914 save percentage and a 2.64 GAA while saving 17.6 goals above average.
The breakdown of the contract is as follows, according to PuckPedia:
Year one – $3.5-million salary + $2-million signing bonus
Year two – $5-million salary + $1-million signing bonus
Year three – $5.4-million salary
Year four – $4.2-million salary
Year five – $3.9-million salary.
The deal includes a 10-team no trade list for all five years of the contract. Similarly to the Evander Kane deal, this one is structured with heavier signing bonus’ at the front end of the contract with salary late in the deal. It allows the deal to be moveable, or able to be bought out, should the need arise down the road.
Drafted by the Dallas Stars 11th overall in the 2010 draft, he only played one game in Dallas before being traded to the LA Kings in 2016.
There, Campbell found his NHL legs as a backup to Jonathan Quick.  Over four seasons, he appeared in 57 games posting a 20-24-5 record, a .918 save percentage and a 2.51 GAA while saving 10 goals above average.
He had joined the Leafs in a Feb. 2020 deal that saw them send back Kyle Clifford and other assets. Campbell’s two-and-a-half-year stint in Toronto has been far from ideal, but at the end of the day, he’s posted a 51-14-9 record, a .916 save percentage and a 2.64 GAA. To top it off, he saved 10 goals above average this year.
It wasn’t all pretty, though. Campbell battled through some injuries and mental blocks during the season that saw his numbers plummet from January through March. While he posted a 9-4-2 record, his save percentage was a measly .882.
Come April, however, Campbell shook it off.
In the playoffs, Campbell has stepped up for the Leafs. In 2021, Toronto lost in seven games to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, but Campbell shined. He posted a .934 save percentage and a 1.81 GAA saving three goals above average.
His numbers weren’t so kind in the playoffs this year, however. The Leafs fell in seven games and he posted a .897 save percentage, 3.15 GAA and -3.3 goals saved above average. Truth be told, however, his counterpart in Andrei Vasilevskiy was not good. He had a nearly identical .897 save percentage, with a 3.04 GAA and -3.3 goals saved above average. Campbell’s numbers were more indicative of how chaotic that series was.
Nevertheless, the Oilers will be looking to get the most out of Campbell over the next five years. Looking ahead to the future, there is a very possible world where Skinner is able to take over the lion share of the games played in what could make Campbell an expensive backup. That, however, will be something the club would need to address down the road as for now, the goal is to continue building towards a contending team as soon as possible.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

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