Top 100 Oilers: No. 58 — Cam Talbot

Notable

There was no NHL path laid out for Talbot. He played Junior A hockey in Hamilton and went undrafted, going to the University of Alabama-Huntsville of the NCAA where he was named All-College Hockey America Second Team and MVP in the 2010 CHA tournament.

His third college season was standout, and he got a chance to play with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, after signing a pro contract with the New York Rangers.

He grinded in the AHL to eventually earn a backup role with the Rangers. That turned into a starting job after a bizarre neck injury took Henrik Lundqvist out of action. Talbot performed extremely well, posting a .926 save percentage and started 24 out of 26 games.

That’s when the Oilers came calling. In the off-season, Chiarelli traded a 2nd, 3rd, and 7th round picks to acquire Talbot to become the Oilers’ next starter, as Ben Scrivens et al tended the nets in a horrid 2014-15 season.

Talbot played three-and-a-half seasons with the Oilers, providing a couple of quality years and one outstanding season, before struggling in his final year in Edmonton.

He was traded to Philadelphia for Anthony Stolarz (remember the Oilers had Stolarz!) and has been used as a backup or platoon starter for Calgary, Minnesota, Ottawa, Los Angeles, and now Detroit.

The Story

The move to get Talbot to Edmonton was shrewd and required, and it worked wonders out of the gates. For a team that was second from last overall in 2015-16, he gave the Oilers a .917 save percentage.

As the Oilers improved their blueline with Adam Larsson and got impressive offensive seasons from Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Talbot was the backbone of a team that would improve from 29th to 8th overall in the NHL, and was only two points back of Anaheim for a division title.

Chiarelli campaigned in the media for Talbot to get Vezina consideration (he finished 4th in voting), and it makes sense why.

He played damn near every game, providing an absurd 42-22-8 record, 2.21 goals against average, and .919 save percentage. That broke a nearly 30-year franchise record set by Grant Fuhr for wins in a season with 40 in 1987-88. He even received one vote for the Hart Trophy.

That set up a playoff run where he played outstanding. Against San Jose, he brickwalled the Sharks for back-to-back shutouts in Games 2 and 3, and only three times in 13 games was his save percentage below .900.

The Oilers advanced to play the Ducks. Unfortunately, the biggest single moment involving Talbot was Ryan Kesler holding his pad open to tie the game in Game 5 and complete a three-goal comeback, (inexplicably uncalled for goalie interference) and eventually win in double OT.

Talbot was sensational in that game, though. He made 60 saves in 84:57 of game action. Of course, the Oilers would fall in seven games, and Talbot would never see the playoffs again with Edmonton, but performances, including Game 2 of that series, were tremendous.

He finished the post-season with a .924 save percentage, and is in the same ballpark of Bill Ranford, Grant Fuhr, Curtis Joseph, Andy Moog, and Dwayne Roloson, as best playoff goaltenders in franchise history.

Early in his tenure, Talbot had a penchant for making huge saves. The one I remember the most is the snow angel stop on Dmitri Kulikov in Florida in January 2016.

He could bail out the team and often did with spectacular efforts.

However, the next season was less Cinderella and a lot more pumpkin for the Oilers, who came crashing back to earth to finish 23rd overall in the league. Talbot played 67 games, but there was some frustration to his game, as the Oilers allowed a goal on the first shot against 14 times that season.

Looking for a bounce-back in 2018-19, it wouldn’t materialize, but neither would the team. Todd McLellan was fired early on after a 9-10-1 start, but Chiarelli would be dismissed just a couple of months later in Janaury.

Talbot had struggled, and before Chiarelli’s dismissal as GM and President of Hockey Ops, he had taken a liking to newcomer Mikko Koskinen, whom he extended to a three-year contract in what would be one of his final acts. The writing was on the wall.

On Feb. 16, 2019, Talbot was shipped out by interim GM Keith Gretzky before Ken Holland took over in May.

The rapid ascension of the Oilers from cellar-dweller to playoff hopeful (and even betting favourite to win the Stanley Cup after leading the Duck series 2-0) has everything to do with Cam Talbot’s play.

He was exactly what the Oilers needed at the time. The idea of an Oilers goaltender finishing 4th in Vezina voting was a foreign concept to fans after the Decade of Darkness, and even now seems implausible.

Talbot continues to plug away in the league at 38-years-old and has played 552 games. For an undrafted, unheralded netminder — that’s impressive. This season, with former adversary John Gibson, they might end the Detroit Red Wings’ playoff drought of nine seasons. Sounds eerily familiar.

The Last 10

• No. 68 — Dustin Penner
• No. 67 — Roman Hamrlík
• No. 66 — Pat Hughes
• No. 65 — Dave Brown
• No. 64 — Tom Gilbert
• No. 63 — Mike Grier
• No. 62 — Marty McSorley
• No. 61 — Ken Linseman
• No. 60 — Evander Kane
• No. 59 — Adam Larsson