Rookie development camp is underway at the Downtown Community Arena and we’ve been getting some pretty good insight to our newcomers throughout the week. Goalie prospect, Stuart Skinner, spent some time with the media today and gave some great insight of the camp through his eyes.

Skinner had a big year for himself. After being drafted by the Oilers last June, he went on to have one of his best seasons in the WHL and won the championship with his new team, the Swift Current Broncos. He’s now in his second Oilers development camp and is leading the newcomers, Olivier Rodrigue and Shane Starrett behind Dylan Wells.

After the draft, Edmonton has turned itself into a goalie warehouse. Let’s take a quick peek at what our current goaltending system looks like:

THAT’S A LOT OF GOALIES! I suppose I’d rather have too many goalies than too little. It will create some good competition between everyone and that can only mean positive for the Oilers organization.

Stuart Skinner had a lot of great things to say about the four goalies participating in camp this week. It’s nice to see they’re getting along because from experience, goalies competing for a roster spot can get pretty competitive. Of course this is only a development camp, and things may be different come main camp. Either way, it’s great that they are all friends. You can find the full interview here. But here’s what he had to say about his fellow goaltenders.

They’ve been producing some great Internet #content as well. As someone who lives on the Internet all day long, I condone of this behaviour.

 

I’m really curious to see how our goaltending situation shakes out in the next few years. Stuart Skinner is pretty hyped up right now (rightfully so), but he has a lot of work to do to compete at the NHL level. There are many goalies who flourish at the WHL level but can’t crack an NHL lineup. I wish the best for him and hopes he can make it one day.

With six goalies below Talbot and Koskinen, our depth is looking pretty strong. We may have a couple options in a few years for someone to take over the starting role from Talbot. Where do you see our goalie situation in a few years from now?