The Oilers will head into next season with their goaltending situation looking as solid as it has in years.

Now, that’s not saying much, considering there was a stretch of years when the fan base was consistently nervous about what they were going to get out of both Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen. That era was followed up by Jack Campbell’s disastrous run, which, quite frankly, would have been much more damaging to the franchise if a young Stuart Skinner had not emerged and quickly became a legitimate NHL starter at just 24 years old.

Even last season, the big question was whether or not Campbell would be able to rebound, find his game, and at least become a competent NHL backup. There were also question marks about whether or not Skinner was going to be able to once again handle the workload of a legitimate top-tier starting goalie, especially considering how the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs ended for the Edmonton product.

Well, we got our answers to both of those. Campbell fell flat on his face out of the gate and was eventually sent down the Bakersfield, while Skinner stepped up and, after some early-season struggles, rebounded to have a very strong season.

Here are some numbers behind Skinner’s season that I absolutely love.

59 Games Played –  Only Juuse Saros, Alexandar Georgiev, and the Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck finished with more games played than Skinner last season. He proved for a second straight year that he can handle the workload that comes with being a starting goalie.

35 – That’s how many times Stuart Skinner started a game and finished with a save percentage above .900. For years we clamoured for a goalie who could just give the Oilers a chance to win and in 35 of his 57 starts, Skinner did exactly that. Don’t think that numbers impressive? The only goalies who had more starts with a save percentage above .900 were Hellebuyck and Sergei Bobrovsky.

.914 – That was Skinner’s save percentage from December 1st until the end of the season. It was top ten in the NHL and came over the course of 42 games played. That’s more than good enough for this Oilers team. This was also Skinner’s save percentage from Game 6 against the Vancouver Canucks when he returned to the crease until the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There is really no reason to not be wildly confident in Skinner’s abilities heading into next season. He’s established that he’s more than capable of handling everything that comes with being a starting goaltender at the NHL level, has proven that he can bounce back from tough stretches, and I think what he went through in these past playoffs is only going to make him a better goalie in the future.

My prediction: by this time next year, we’re having conversations about Skinner being a top-five goaltender in the NHL.

Now, let’s talk about the backup position for a second here.

Pickard came up and played 23 games for the Oilers last season. It was the first time he’s played more than 15 NHL games in a season since the 2016-17 campaign when he appeared in 50 games for the Colorado Avalanche.

He gave the Oilers really good results, posting a .909 save percentage, which is well above the league average last season of .898.

While you can sit there and dissect the quality of opponents that he faced at certain points, I think it’s also fair to mention he did have some big wins, like the ones against Dallas and Pittsburgh, and a lot of his games against weaker opponents came on nights where the team was playing the second of a back-to-back. Being a backup goalie isn’t easy and Pickard delivered for the Oilers.

I fully recognize that watching Pickard can be a bit of an uneasy experience. He isn’t positionally the most sound goalie and at times, he’s prone to giving up a soft goal and can make some easy saves look difficult.

Still, he came through for the Oilers when they needed him most. If it wasn’t for his play in game four of the Round 2 against the Vancouver Canucks, the Oilers likely don’t go on a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

The guys in the room absolutely love him, his relationship with Skinner is rock solid, and at $1 million, he’s about as cheap as a backup goalie can come. There are more positives than negatives with Pickard.

Can he repeat his 2023-24 performance next season? I think he can but I also think it’s fair to maybe expect a bit of a regression. At the end of the day, there’s a reason he wasn’t in the NHL for as long as he was.

As long as that regression is only a couple of save percentage points and he stays above .900, then I think the Oilers will take it.

The Oilers are heading into next season with their goaltending duo solidified and no real questions about either of their abilities to go out and do their jobs. That’s a wonderful spot to be in.