The Edmonton Oilers will be without Stuart Skinner when they take on the Kraken in Seattle on Thursday.
Skinner left the team’s 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars in the third period on Wednesday after getting clipped by Mikko Rantanen. Head coach Kris Knoblauch said following the game that Skinner wasn’t expected to travel with the Oilers to Seattle.
Skinner allowed four goals on 21 shots against Dallas before coming out of the game about six minutes into the third period. Backup goalie Calvin Pickard faced only three shots over 11 minutes of play and he stopped all of them.
It was the second time in three starts that Skinner was knocked out of the game by an opposing player. Last week against the Winnipeg Jets, a collision with Gabriel Vilardi resulted in concussion spotters sending Skinner to the room.
With the Oilers playing the second leg of a back-to-back on Thursday, the game against the Kraken was always going to be Pickard’s start. But without Skinner available to serve as the backup on the bench, Edmonton is going to need to bring somebody up from the American Hockey League.
Collin Delia was signed to a one-year contract in the off-season to give the Bakersfield Condors a veteran goaltender and the Oilers a potential third-string goalie. The 30-year-old has 52 games of NHL experience between the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks and has a .896 save percentage in 22 games for the Bakersfield Condors this season.
Olivier Rodrigue was Edmonton’s second-round choice in the 2018 draft and is the top goalie prospect in the Oilers’ system. He posted a .912 save percentage in 29 games for the Condors in 2022-23 and a .916 save percentage with Bakersfield in 37 games in 2023-24 but has dipped to a .899 save percentage in 40 AHL games in 2024-25.
Given Rodrigue started for the Condors on Wednesday in a game that went to overtime, it seems likely Delia will be the one joining the Oilers in Seattle on Thursday.