Could the Oilers find their next goalie on the waiver wire?

The month of July is officially halfway done and as things currently stand, the Edmonton Oilers’ goaltending duo for 2024-25 will once again be Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard.

I’m not here to argue about whether or not that is the right decision but the market has really dried up and when you see a goalie like Artus Silovs get moved for a relatively low price, and you don’t hear a single report about the Oilers having interest in him, then I think you can assume that the Oilers aren’t going to simply make a move for the sake of making a move.

They will only bring in a goalie if they feel that they are a legitimate upgrade on Calvin Pickard.

Earlier this week on Daily Faceoff, Jeff Marek wrote about the possibility of Tristan Jarry being traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins now that they’ve brought in Silovs and he mentioned the Edmonton Oilers as a potential landing spot.

Now, there are some reasons to like Jarry. 

When the Penguins were a competitive team, his numbers were good and this past season ended a streak of five consecutive years where his save percentage was above .903.

He also has a connection to Edmonton, having played his junior hockey year for the Oil Kings, and even after he began his pro career, he spent a lot of time in Edmonton.

There are also some major risks that come with Jarry, the biggest one being his contract.

He’s signed for three more years with a $5.375m cap hit. Even if the Penguins were to keep half of his contract for the remaining three years, I’m still not sure I’d want the Oilers to pursue him.

Jarry is a reclamation project, and the Oilers can’t afford the risk that comes with his contract. If he was $1-million? Then, sure. I could see why Edmonton would have interest. If he didn’t have three years of term then I think it would also make sense.

If Edmonton is going to bring in a goalie who isn’t a sure thing, then they need to be able to get out of the situation relatively cleanly if it doesn’t work. There’s no path to that with Jarry.

Marek did throw out another name on Oilersnation Everyday on Tuesday that doesn’t come with the same level of risk.

The Canucks had to move Silovs now because he would need waivers to be sent to the AHL and with Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen on the roster, the Canucks didn’t want to lose Silovs for nothing in the fall.

Marek pointed out at the Boston Bruins are in a similar spot with Michael DiPietro, who they recently signed to a two-year, $895k contract.

The Bruins have Jeremy Swayman locked up for the next seven seasons and veteran backup Joonas Korpisalo is on the roster as well.

If Boston were to run it back with the same tandem that they had last season, DiPietro could very well find himself on the waiver wire before the start of the regular season.

The 26 year old would of course come with some risk. While his AHL numbers have been absolutely sparkling the last number of seasons, he only has three games of NHL experience. This is not a guy who would be a lock to come in and even be an upgrade on Calvin Pickard.

But he does have upside. He started 40 games for the Providence Bruins of the AHL this past season and posted a .927 save percentage and followed it up with a .928 in the playoffs.

I would be totally fine if the Oilers started the season with Skinner and DiPietro as their goaltending duo. 

Even if he’s unproven, he makes under $1m and in this hypothetical scenario where the Bruins put him on waivers, he’d cost nothing to acquire.

It’s basically a free shot on a goalie who appears ready to take the next step and start playing NHL games.

If it doesn’t work out? You put him back on waivers, recall Calvin Pickard (assuming he clears) and you’re right back to where you started.

Now, the Boston Bruins could be keen on keeping DiPietro for the season and considering he signed a two-year deal just a few days before he could have tested the waters in unrestricted free agency, there is a good chance that the Bruins have made him some sort of a promise.

That would mean that Korpisalo is the odd man out.

His numbers last year weren’t great and it’s been a couple of seasons since he was a reliable starter and just like Jarry, he comes with term. He has three years left on his contract and he’s on the Bruins’ books at $3m (the Senators retained $1-million when they traded him in 2024).

If the Oilers wanted to take on a project goalie, I would much rather have them look at Korpisalo before Jarry simply for the fact that if the Bruins retained 50 percent of his contract, he would only cost $1.5-million and if it didn’t work, you could bury him in the minors and have under $400k in dead cap space on the books.

From the Bruins’ perspective, if they retained 50 percent of Korpisalo’s deal and had DiPietro as their backup, they would actually still be freeing up cap space and the $1.5-million in dead cap space would be less than the $1.9-million that they’d have on the books by just burying him in the minors.

I’m not sure how much of an upgrade he would be on Pickard though, and I’m not someone who’s in the camp of wanting the Oilers to make a move simply for the sake of saying they did something.

I would pass on both Korpisalo and Jarry if I was Stan Bowman, even if either one was 50% retained.

If they’re going to bring someone in to play with Skinner, they either have to be a risk-free add with upside like DiPietro or someone who is a bona fide upgrade on Pickard, and I’m not sure the latter is out there on the market.

At this point, if there’s going to be a new goalie in Edmonton next fall, it’s more likely to come via the waiver wire instead of through a trade.