Evaluating the goaltending options still available for the Edmonton Oilers

But if the franchise still wants to upgrade on one of their two NHL goalies, here’s some candidates still available.

Some free agents still available

The goaltending free-agent market this year wasn’t great from the start. And now, with names like Jake Allen and Dan Vladar off the market, it’s a pretty barren space right now. However, a couple of names might be viable options still as a solid backup.

Ilya Samsonov is still without a contract, after playing with the Vegas Golden Knights last season as Adin Hill’s backup. Samsonov has had solid stretches of play before, most notably helping the Toronto Maple Leafs end a drought of 19 years between playoff series wins. In exactly 200 games played over his NHL career, he has registered a 2.77 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage. Exactly the sort of stuff you expect from a backup.

The only worry is Samsonov’s recent play hasn’t been that inspiring. Last year, while his GAA was only a shade above his career average, his sv% came in at .891, a full 11 points lower than usual. On a league-minimum deal, Samsonov could be a reasonable bet, but anything more than that would be a risky endeavour.

James Reimer is an available name with a more tenured background and better statistics. The 15-year veteran owns career numbers of a 2.89 GAA but with a solid .910 sv% playing behind some rather lousy teams. Last season was more of the same, as he still managed to finish only slightly below .900 in the save percentage department, behind a Buffalo Sabres defence that lacked cohesion.

The major point of contention with Reimer would be age, as he is already 37-years-old. He could still have more left in the tank, and do better playing for a team not named the Sabres, but at this point in his career he is likely only getting one-year contracts at a time.

As for a hilarious choice, Alexandar Georgiev also remains available. For a moment, let’s put aside the memories of him losing his cool during a New Year’s Eve game against the Oilers while a member of the New York Rangers. Georgiev split last season between the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks, and for his career has a .903 sv% in just over 300 games played.

Recency bias, however, soundly rejects Georgiev as an option. There is no way anybody can legitimately claim Skinner as being the worst goalie in the league, when Georgiev put up a GAA of 3.71 and a lowly .875 sv% in 2024–25. This signing would be a very high-risk one, with the reward not being what fans desire.

Smaller trades for more competitive backups

We’ve already seen a lot of backup goaltenders move so far this offseason, with the most recent name moving being Arturs Silovs. So what’s left out there?

One potential name nearby is Eric Comrie. Comrie, who just turned 30 earlier this month, is on his second stint with the Winnipeg Jets as the understudy to Vezina- and Hart-winner Connor Hellebuyck. His career stats haven’t always been the greatest, but in 20 games played last season, Comrie posted a 2.39 GAA and a .914 sv%. That was good enough to help the Jets win the President’s Trophy as the best regularseason team.

Comrie might make the most sense out of any name written in this article. He has a cap hit barely above the league minimum and is coming off a very solid 2024–25 campaign albeit with more sparing use. And like Skinner, Comrie is from Edmonton, so trading for him would give the Oilers the perfect all-Edmonton goalie tandem. The only real question would be how willing the Jets would be to help out a rival Western Conference team with their biggest weakness.

Another solid backup with low cap hit next year would be Jonathan Quick. The Rangers netminder is coming off a rough year where nobody on that team besides Igor Shesterkin played up to their potential. For the trouble, Quick finished with a 3.11 GAA and an .893 sv%, both stats being well below his career averages.

A trade like this would be objectively hilarious, in light of the Oilers’ four consecutive years of eliminating Quick’s former team, the Los Angeles Kings, in the first round. Even better, Quick was their starting goalie in the first of those four years. A move like this, though, would be for one year and maybe two at best, given Quick is already 39. For the championship pedigree, though, along with the hilarity of what would be the reaction from Kings fans, it would be worthwhile.

One other option with a stronger Edmonton connection would be former Oil Kings netminder Tristan Jarry. Jarry, the starting goalie on the 2014 Memorial Cup-winning team, has had flashes of brilliance in his NHL career. In 2022, he helped get the Pittsburgh Penguins to their most recent playoff berth with a 34-win season. And though last year started off abysmally for him, he recovered enough to finish with a 3.12 GAA and .893 sv%. For his career, Jarry owns a surprisingly decent .909 sv%, playing behind some rather middling Penguins defences.

This is the truest question of “is it the goalie, or is it the defence in front of him?” A Jarry trade is especially plausible now with the Pens having acquired Silovs, and Jarry may benefit greatly from a change of scenery. Reuniting with Memorial Cup teammate Curtis Lazar would be an extra benefit. The one tricky aspect is that the Oilers would need Pittsburgh to retain salary, which may take extra assets to do. Jarry, though, has already won one hockey championship in Edmonton; he could well be the answer to a second.

What would a trade for a bigger name look like?

A couple of solid names have floated around the rumour mill, that would put Edmonton over the top on the back end. This is not the section for realism, as most of these trades have a lot of hurdles to overcome. Rather, think of this as this observer playing Franchise Mode in NHL 25 like many of you, the readers, do.

Juuse Saros would be a solid buy-low candidate to go after in the here and now. Saros was not the primary reason the Nashville Predators floundered last season, but his 2.98 GAA and .896 sv% didn’t help the team out a whole lot. Career-wise, the numbers of 2.68 and .914 across over 400 games look far more dazzling. Even more so when you consider contextually, how he has had to carry the Predators to playoff berths in this decade.

Saros is only 30-years-old, so he likely still has a lot of miles left in the tank. And as referenced, he got very little help from the team in front of him, with a defence that at times featured names like Marc Del Gaizo and former Oiler Kevin Gravel. It would still cost a lot of assets, and certainly one of Skinner or Pickard, to acquire Saros. But it is a very real possibility when you consider young goaltender Justus Annunen waits in the wings for a starting role.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, owner of one of the most magnificent names in the game today, could be another low-cost, high-ceiling trade target for Edmonton. Like Reimer, Luukkonen had no help from Sabres defensive play, although he did less than Reimer to try and help out, with his stats showing a 3.20 GAA and .887 sv% on the year. In spite of those numbers, Luukkonen still won 24 games and posted two shutouts in his 55 games played.

With veteran backup Alex Lyon signed for next year and Devon Levi being just a bit of extra seasoning away from being NHL-ready, the Sabres could afford to move on from Luukkonen. For the Oilers’ part, they would only have to part with Pickard and one or two additional assets to be able to snatch the young Finn, and potentially help him regain confidence with a better defence in front of him.

The grand prize that many have dreamed of so far remains Ilya Sorokin, fresh off a “down” year that still saw him post a .907 sv% across 61 games. This came behind a slow, aging New York Islanders team that, in the past couple of months, just moved on from the ageless Lou Lamoriello and drafted Matthew Schaefer first overall. Sorokin’s career numbers of 2.58 GAA and .917 sv% speak for themselves quite clearly.

Unfortunately, this is very much more fantasy than a viable option. Edmonton wouldn’t have nearly enough assets to offer the Islanders in a potential trade, for one. For two, the $8.25M cap hit would be tricky to work into the Oilers’ books. And for three, Sorokin himself, owner of a no-movement clause, has all but shut down trade rumours. And as Oilers fans have recently remembered, if a player with an NMC doesn’t want to be traded, they almost never move.

There’s still several options available, and all the rest of the summer to make one. We’ll see if any changes get made in that time.