A year ago at training camp. Calvin Pickard knew he was on his way to Bakersfield, a good soldier on a two-way contract that paid him $763,000 if he was in the NHL and $300,000 in the minors as the No. 3 goalie in the Oiler organization behind Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner.
Now, after the Campbell free-agent experiment blew up in the Oilers faces, they swapped out Campbell for Pickard a month into the 2023-24 season, he’s firmly ensconced as an NHL goalie at 32.
In his 23 games last season he had a .909 save percentage and 2.45 goal against average, and came to the rescue when Skinner struggled against Vancouver in the second playoff round. He may play more league games this season (maybe 30) in partnership with Skinner because the team has 14 back-to-back games.
Signing Pickard to a new deal was as much a sure thing as the Zamboni cleaning the ice between periods or seeing Joey Moss belting out O Canada on the Jumbotron.
“It’s exciting. I didn’t want to be anywhere else,” said much-travelled Pickard, 32, who was a free agent for only a few hours on July 1 with the Oilers giving him a two-year contract for an AAV of $1 million, the most money he’s made in seven years.
He and Skinner haven’t played an exhibition game yet but they’ll get their share when the games really count, starting Oct. 9 at home against Winnipeg.
“With a tandem you want a good relationship obviously and we’re a good support system for each other. We’re really good friends,” said Pickard, who seems to have goalie buddies on just about every team, though his travels.
What has he learned through his 13 pro seasons?
“You never want to take a day for granted. Coming up (minors) and fighting for my life every single day, that’s what I do. Nothing changes even with a two-year contract. My mindset never changes. I always have to prove myself,” he said.
Getting into the playoff series against Vancouver for Games 4 and 5 was big stuff.
“Really exciting for me to be called upon, to have the trust of the coaching staff in that situation, backs against the all. I played a couple of good games (win and a loss) and Stu came back in and he did a great job,” said Pickard.
“Stu’s calmness, his demeanour speaks to somebody over 30. I don’t know how old he is (25) but, really, to have gone through what he’s had to the last two years at such a young age… getting to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final this year, brushing everything (playoff pressure) off, that’s very impressive,” said Pickard.
Skinner is wearing dark pads this year to go with the dark jerseys.
“I love it. I don’t have that kind of swagger,” said Pickard.
Skinner has the same confidence on the golf course.
“We played last week, Stu, I and Schwartzie (goalie coach Dustin Schwartz) and both were in the 70s I think. Me? I actually played really well and I shot 90. I might have played my best round,” said Pickard, clearly more at home around a hockey net than the acres of green.
Moving up ladder
No surprise that Warren Rychel, the former Windsor Spitfires GM, part-owner and Stanley Cup winner in Colorado in 1996, is taking over from Brad Holland as head pro scout. Rychel, who is based in Ontario but also has a place in Florida, was hired as a pro scout two years ago after long-time friend and Oiler assistant GM Keith Gretzky first got him involved with the organization as a part-timer watching Panthers and Lightning games.
Rychel, who was also a pro scout in Arizona for four years, never met a hockey building he didn’t like. “I’m a guy who’s been in rinks since I was eight years old. I can’t get enough of rinks. It’s been my whole life,” Rychel told the Windsor Star two years ago when he first got the Oiler scouting gig.
Rychel, who managed the junior Spitfires to three Memorial Cups, will now be showing his ex junior player Zack Kassian the ropes as Kassian transitions to grading players rather than playing games.
“Kass will be fine. He’s probably played with or against 130 (current) NHL players,” said Rychel, who traded for Kassian when Windsor was making their Memorial Cup run in 2010. “I needed him to shoo the flies away from (Taylor) Hall and (Adam) Henrique.”
This n’ That
With Brett Kulak, Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark not playing against the Jets here Sunday or in the split-squad games against Calgary on Monday, we can assume those veterans will be part of the travelling party to Winnipeg for the exhibition Wednesday night…
Calgary didn’t bring their tryout defenceman Tyson Barrie to Edmonton to play his old team for the split-squad game. He stayed in Calgary along with MacKenzie Weegar and fellow vet Joel Hanley on their back-end against the travelling Oilers…
Local product forward Lucas Ciona, who will be playing a second season with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers, will be in the Flames lineup at Rogers Place. Calgary will also dress forward Jacob Battaglia, and, no, their draft pick isn’t related to the colourful ex Carolina winger Bates Battaglia…
While former Oilers Cup winner Steve Smith replaced Kris Knoblauch as interim head coach in Hartford last November after Knoblauch was hired by the Oilers, he did a nice job getting the Wolf Pack into the playoffs. Smith isn’t back with Rangers’ AHL farm club. Grant Potulny, who was at Northern Michigan, is now Hartford’s bench boss…
Dylan Holloway, wearing No. 81 for the St. Louis Blues, snapped home a Brayden Schenn feed for his first Blues’ goal Sunday in a pre-season game against Utah…
Warren Foegele, who killed penalties here in the playoffs with Ryan McLeod, is part of the Kings rotation, too. He’s had Quinton Byfield as a partner in camp…
McLeod, who is expected to center a third Buffalo line with Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway, will be off to Europe Wednesday with the Sabres, who open the season with two league games against New Jersey Devils Oct. 4-5 in Prague. They also have an exhibition in Munich before that against Red Bull team at the new SAP Garden there…
Oilers 2024 second-round draft pick goalie Eemil Vinni, 18, has been loaned from IFK Helsinki to the lower league (Mestis) JoKP team. Better that than being a spectator for IFK. JoKP is where Vinni played in 2023-2024…
Kailer Yamamoto, on a camp tryout in Utah for the first time in his eight pro seasons, got a good look on right side on a line with 2024 first-round centre Cole Beaudoin and sure-fire top 9 winger Michael Carcone in Utah’s first-ever game against St. Louis Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa…
When Oilers took pugnacious OHL winger Connor Clattenburg in the sixth round of the 2024 draft (160th overall) after 29 points, several scouts wondered why. But Clattenburg, 19, caught everybody’s eye at the Young Stars tournament in Penticton. He will be in the Oilers lineup against Calgary on Monday.
“I certainly was drawn to him in Penticton. He was always in somebody’s face,” said a long-time NHL pro scout…
Huge defenceman Kevin Bahl, the Flames trade pickup from New Jersey for goalie Jacob Markstrom, continues to nurse a lower-body injury and hasn’t been on the ice for their camp yet.
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