So is it too early to panic?
Or do we take a deep breath with the Oilers a hot mess right now, outscored 17-7 in three straight road games, and step back and say, “Hey, there’s still 24 games left.”
Clearly the Oilers aren’t managing the puck well, they’re throwing it into areas where they shouldn’t, leading to too many rush chances against, like the first month of the season, and they’re not winning nearly enough puck battles, clichés all. They look slow and not aggressive, and they also need a save. More on that later.
But, again, how depressing is it here with nobody knowing exactly when Evander Kane will be back and whether the Oilers have his $5.25 million AAV to work in a trade with if he stays on long-term injury? We still feel he won’t be back until the playoffs in mid April, trying to catch up to the speeding train without any games, but a big, necessary body up front, like, say, another possible target of Boston’s feisty UFA winger/centre Trent Frederic, if the Oilers had the cap space.
“I always try to give a reprieve; you try and look at a team over three or four months,” said former NHL tender, goalie coach and TSN commentator Jamie McLennan.
“They don’t look motivated right now. They look like they’re still laying on a beach with their minds and their effort level. It’s like they forgot (how to play) … there were a couple of games going into the (4 Nations Face-Off) break where they were asleep and coming out of it, they haven’t woken up.”
“It’s not the team that went on that stretch where they looked really connected defensively, everything was firing on all cylinders. They just knew how to play and had the formula. They were winning 3-1, how you have to win in the playoffs.”
“I know that the two most polarizing players are (Evan) Bouchard and (Stuart) Skinner and both of them kind of mirror this group. They’re wildly inconsistent. Bouchard goes to sleep in a game and Skinner allows a goal (at the wrong time) … I didn’t like the wraparound goal he gave up in Tampa.
“Stu doesn’t look comfortable in the net, he’s not playing with that edge. When the team’s not playing well in front of him, he gets exposed with his lateral movement. What he’s good at is being 6-foot-4 and holding his angle. But I can’t lay this all at his feet,” said McLennan.
“There’s enough culpability to go around in that dressing room.”
What we know
The Oilers are in win-now mode clearly with 97, even if he looks tired mentally after the 4 Nations, and 29, on his way to 60 goals, both in their primes. But Skinner’s current game isn’t in line with that. As the eminently-qualified-to-talk-about-goaltending Grant Fuhr said the other day, “Stu is still in the not-so-fun learning stages.”
His trajectory does not seem to be on the same plane as McDavid and Draisaitl, an ache that keeps getting stronger. When the even-keeled head coach Kris Knoblauch, loathe to criticize publicly, especially his tenders, calls out Skinner after Brandon Hagel’s wraparound score in Tampa — “I’m not saying that’s a terrible goal … it’s one (save) you want him to make more times than not.” — you can sense the frustration is creeping in.
McLennan takes the whole goaltending picture and expands on it.
“I know the hot-button topic is goaltending but what if Skinner rolls his ankle in practice today and he’s out for six weeks, then it’s (Calvin) Pickard and (Olivier) Rodrigue,” said McLennan.
“Pickard’s been a great story. He was originally signed as a No. 3 behind (Jack) Campbell and Stu. He’s been great. He’s a really serviceable No. 2 but when Stu hasn’t been a serviceable No. 1, then you’re asking more. In my mind, they are committed on Stu. He’s their guy. But they need another NHL goaltender.”
Skinner, with just 162 league games, was thrust into the starter’s job when Campbell couldn’t hack it after that ill-fated five-year deal blew up in the Oilers’ faces. In a perfect world, at this time, Skinner would be in a 1 and 1a goalie tandem, being pushed.
What we think we know
As much as GM Stan Bowman says he isn’t looking to trade for a goalie, if you strapped him to a chair and stuck a needle of truth serum in his arm, you can probably bet a fair amount of money he’s been on the phone to St. Louis about Jordan Binnington, the 4 Nations goalie hero.
Or Anaheim about John Gibson, even if he’s currently out with an upper-body injury, with the Ducks just trading Ville Husso for some cover. Or Utah about UFA Karel Vejmelka, or even Buffalo with James Reimer as a rental, with Reimer maybe a No. 3 in the organization.
Problem with Vejmelka is Utah’s very much in a fight for a wild-card spot, Vejmelka’s their starter, and they don’t need any more draft picks as trade compensation with 16 selections in the next two years. Maybe if the Oilers were giving up a strong forward prospect like Shane Lachance, the Boston University captain, though? Vejmelka would maybe push Skinner more in a 1 and 1a than Pickard.
St. Louis is also in the playoff picture, although they feel Joel Hofer, 25, a friend of Skinner’s from their WHL days, is their heir apparent. They aren’t giving Binnington away but GM Doug Armstrong, who knows his team is far from a Cup contender, might strike while the iron’s red hot.
The Ducks would certainly trade Gibson because Lukas Dostal is their starter but would have to eat half of his $6.4-million AAV for two more years. Gibson is having a good season but there was a stretch in a year and a half where he was out of the net 19 times, pulled or hurt, a red flag. With Gibson’s injury history, and not having played in a playoff game in seven years, is he really worth a first-round 2026 pick?
What we know
Bouchard’s messy defensive mistakes, like one in the first 30 seconds in Tampa that Skinner cleaned up on after a Brandon Hagel ripper, and his weak effort on Hagel’s wraparound goal to help his goalie, are becoming glaring. He needs a wake-up call. After that play, maybe he deserved to sit for the rest of the period. Not just a shift or two. Maybe a healthy scratch would catch his attention? OK, that’s maybe a reach.
For sure, Bouchard’s game is up and down, like Skinner’s, and the Oilers absolutely need both at the top of their game to win games.
He’s minus-seven in the last four games — he had five giveaways in Tampa — with John Klingberg, another offensive defenceman, maybe taking over on the point on the power play and possibly as Mattias Ekholm’s five-on-five partner if there was a healthy scratch?
You can’t defend the way Bouchard is defending right now. Sometimes, instead of looking for a 10-out-of-10 play, a six will do.
“I wouldn’t have a problem with sitting him for a game. You can’t make the same mistakes over and over like he is, you can’t throw the puck up the middle four times in a row and it ends up the back of your net twice. Sometimes guys who hold onto the puck a long time have no spidey sense that something bad will happen. Just make the easy play. There’s nothing wrong with off-the-glass and out sometimes and McDavid and Draisaitl can put pressure on the D and maybe there’s a turnover at the other end,” said a longtime NHL coach.
Ekholm, normally so coldly efficient on the back-end, is minus-nine in five February games. Some of his own accord, some of Bouchard’s troubles leaking into his game. Fact is, the Oilers defence as a whole is a hot mess right now. They’re not getting the puck up ice cleanly, if at all. Brett Kulak, so understatedly steady for months, moving up to the top four with Darnell Nurse, has only been a plus player in two of the last 10 games.
What we think we know
The Oilers are working the phones for a top-four right-shot defenceman to play with Nurse. Klingberg, while a good puck-mover, does not seem that guy off this small sample size. He’s looks more like a bottom-pairing defenceman. They should be swinging for the fences, looking if not for a home run like Ekholm at the deadline in 2023, then at least a ground-rule double. You know who they need? They should be going after Jacob Trouba if the Ducks would eat half of his $8-million AAV — he has another year after this one — if Trouba wants to come here with his doctor wife back in New York. Maybe Ducks GM Pat Verbeek promised Trouba he would move him at the deadline to a contender after he waived his no-trade to leave the Rangers.
They need a nasty, strong, defender who can clear the crease and break up a cycle, like Trouba. While people such as Carson Soucy and Jamie Oleksiak are also out there as UFA rentals, they might be better suited as five-six guys here in the picture with Brett Kulak, Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher.