An Oiler from the Past: Mathieu Garon

Do you remember Mathieu Garon?

Immediately after the Edmonton Oilers’ trip to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, the team entered what is known as the decade of darkness. There were only a handful of seasons for Oiler fans to get their hopes up, including the 2007-08 season. This week, the Wheel of Names landed on the 2007-08 season and Mathieu Garon is the subject of this An Oiler from the Past.

Born in Chandler, Québec, on the Gaspé Peninsula, the right-handed catching goalie made his Québec Maritimes Junior Hockey League debut with the Victoriaville Tigres in the 1995-96 season. Garon got the majority of the starts (he appeared in 51 games) and had an .875 save percentage and 4.19 goals against average. In the postseason, he played 12 games with an .887 save percentage and 3.37 goals against average.

Garon was drafted 44th overall in the 1996 draft by his home provincial team, the Montréal Canadiens. Garon returned to Victoriaville in 1996-97 and 1997-98, posting a .902 save percentage 2.94 goals against average, and a .909 save percentage and 2.68 goals against average respectively.

Starting his professional career the following season, Garon played 40 games with the Fredericton Canadiens of the American Hockey League in 1998-99, posting a .904 save percentage and 3.08 goals against average. That team moved to Québec City the following season, where Garon had an. 898 save percentage and 3.10 goals against average in 53 games.

The 2000-01 season was the first time he appeared in the National Hockey League, playing 11 games with the Canadiens where he had an .897 save percentage and 2.44 goals against average. The majority of his season was spent in the AHL though, with Garon having a .920 save percentage and 2.92 goals against average in 31 games, along with a .933 save percentage in eight postseason games.

Garon’s 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons were similar, playing seeing limited action in the NHL and playing well. The 2003-04 season was the first season Garon spent entirely in the NHL, playing 19 games with the Canadiens where he had a .921 save percentage and 2.27 goals against average. Ironically, José Théodore, the starter of the Canadiens that year, also was a right-handed goalie and was 44th overall two drafts prior.

Anyway, Garon was traded the following off-season to the Los Angeles Kings, playing the lockout season with their AHL team where he had a .927 save percentage and 2.12 goals against average in 52 games played. Earning the starter role for the Kings in 2005-06, he struggled with an .894 save percentage and 3.22 goals against average. Another former Oiler, Jason Labarbera, was his backup that season.

Garon stuck with the Kings in 2006-07, playing 32 games where he had a .907 save percentage and 2.66 goals against average. There’s one Japanese-born player to appear in an NHL game, Yutaka Fukufuji, and he played his only four games with the Kings in 2006-07. In the off-season, Garon signed with the Oilers to share the crease with Dwayne Roloson.

Despite leading the Oilers to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance just two seasons prior, Roloson played fewer games than Garon in 2007-08 thanks to Garon’s strong .913 save percentage and  2.66 goals against average. Diving deeper into the 2007-08 season, let’s briefly touch on an incredible feat from Garon that season.

 In 2007-08, Garon played in 10 shootouts, allowing just two goals on 30 shots. That’s an incredible .938 save percentage on breakaways. Overall, he finished with a .752 save percentage, which ranks as the 15th-highest save percentage with a minimum of 40 shots. 

The highest shootout percentage save percentage with the same sample size belongs to Marc Denis, who had an .854, followed by Mikko Koskinen who had an .829 save percentage.

Getting back to the rest of Garon’s career, the netminder played for the Oilers (albeit briefly) in 2008-09, the season I happened to start cheering for the Oilers. He only played 15 games where he had an .895 save percentage and 3.17 goals against average, as he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He played just four games with the Penguins that season, as well as one postseason game, but the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. In the off-season, Garon signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets, backing up fellow right-handed catcher, Steve Mason. Garon finished that season with a .903 save percentage and 2.81 goals against average.

Returning to the Blue Jackets for the 2010-11 season, Garon finished with a .901 save percentage and 2.72 goals against average in 36 games. In the off-season, Garon signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning to reunite with Roloson. Garon posted a .900 save percentage and 2.85 goals against average in 48 games in 2011-12. The most notable incident from this season for Garon was whatever the heck happened in the clip below.