9:45 a.m.: All three teams have confirmed the trades. The Penguins confirmed that the draft pick acquired from the Oilers will be Edmonton’s 2029 second-round pick. No salary was retained in either deal.
9:02 a.m.: The Edmonton Oilers are reportedly close to making a pair of significant trades today. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Oilers are working to acquire netminder Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins and defenseman Spencer Stastney from the Nashville Predators. Shortly thereafter, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun confirmed that Jarry is heading to Edmonton.
As trade details continue to trickle in, LeBrun reported that Stastney will cost Edmonton their 2027 third-round pick. Meanwhile, insider Frank Seravalli suggests that Stuart Skinner and another player are a part of the package going to Pittsburgh for Jarry. ESPN’s Kevin Weekes added that defenseman Brett Kulak and a draft pick are also going to Pittsburgh, while former first-round pick Samuel Poulin is headed to Alberta.
Edmonton’s interest in Jarry has been well-known for the last few weeks. A day before American Thanksgiving, Weekes reported that Jarry had been generating trade interest from around the league and that the Oilers were far and away the most interested — for good reason. Given the tight salary cap situation for the Oilers, it’s likely that trade conversations between Edmonton and Pittsburgh have been going on for the last several weeks.
After playing relatively well for the Oilers throughout their first run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2024, Edmonton returned to the Cup Final last season despite Skinner’s performance. He didn’t play in all the potential games throughout last year’s push, but he finished with a .889 SV% in 15 contests, including a more than disappointing .861 SV% in five games against the Florida Panthers.
The situation has worsened this season, and obviously reached a boiling point for the Oilers’ front office. Through Edmonton’s first 33 games, the duo of Skinner and Calvin Pickard has combined for a .879 SV%. There was no help available via recall either, as third-string netminder Connor Ingram owns a .868 mark with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors.
If Jarry continues his current resurgence, the Oilers should have some newfound stability in the crease. In 13 starts this season, Jarry has a 9-3-1 record with a .909 SV% and 2.66 GAA. According to MoneyPuck, for netminders that have played in 10 or more games, Jarry is ranked 22nd in the league for Goals Saved Above Expected this season. He’s by no means the best netminder in the league this season, though he’s performing much better than Skinner and Pickard, who are ranked 32nd and 52nd, respectively.
Still, Jarry has been volatile in his own right. Last season, in what was the worst performance of his professional career, Jarry finished with a .892 SV% and 3.12 GAA, ranking 33rd in GSAx. If he reverts to that form as he finishes out the remaining three years of his five-year, $28.66MM contract, the Oilers will be in a world of trouble.
At any rate, while they acquired a pair of pending unrestricted free agents in Skinner and Kulak, it’s nothing but a win for the Penguins to receive a second-round pick for Jarry’s services. One year ago, Pittsburgh placed Jarry on the waiver wire, meaning the Oilers could have had him for free had they been able to make the money work. The fact that the Penguins were able to get actual assets for Jarry a year later is a testament to their patience.
Meanwhile, the Oilers have swapped Kulak’s $2.75MM cap hit with Stastney’s $825K. Despite finishing with the highest point production of his career last season, Kulak has struggled through the first few months of the 2025-26 campaign.
Registering only two assists in 31 games, it became apparent that Kulak’s time with the Oilers may be coming to an end. Typically reliable on the defensive side of the puck, Kulak’s 87.0% on-ice save percentage at even strength was troubling considering that he had never finished with lower than an 89.0% mark throughout his 12-year career.
Stastney, 25, offers more on the offensive side of the puck and is actually performing better on the defensive side of the puck compared to Kulak this season. The pending restricted free agent blueliner has scored one goal and nine points in 30 games this season for the Predators, averaging a 90.0% on-ice save percentage.
Lastly, as a part of the Jarry trade, the Penguins have finally moved on from Poulin. The 24-year-old had appeared in a few games for the Penguins this season, but failed to do much with his opportunity despite being given middle-six minutes. Still, he’s been on a tear in the AHL, scoring nine goals and 20 points in 22 games. He’ll likely report directly to the Oilers, considering the number of injuries they’ve had to their depth forwards this season.
Photo courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images.
Wow. Has to be some retention by the pens. Curious to see what the return will be
Will be interesting to see the return for Jarry. He’s been maddingly inconsistent the past couple years and despite being in the playoff mix that contract is terrible if/when his play dips again.
Stastney did a decent job for the Preds. Not a bad pickup for the Oilers.
Didn’t wake up this morning expecting this! Thought they would ride the Skinner-Pickard train all day, everyday. Respect to them though. Will he be enough to push them over the edge is the real question
retention or a cap dump player, Edmonton has no space and would need to balance the cap here or to nashville
What a terrible trade.
I don’t even understand this.
A late second? If it was for a first it would still be a bad deal but for a late second, it’s insane.
We are giving up a guy playing really well with a manageable cap hit for a guy who can’t stop a beach ball and our reward is a late second?
Could have just paired Jarry with Murashov on his rookie deal and had an elite tandem and dealt Silovs.
Easily the worst thing Dubas has done here…AND HE SIGNED RYAN GRAVES. Awful.
You think if they had gotten a first for the most overpriced goalie in hockey it would have been bad? You really are the most irrational kind of fan. Penguins are heading down slowly and to be able to dump even some of that contract is incredible. I can’t wait for your reaction when they trade Crosby to Montreal.
Not too long ago, most Penguins fans were content to have someone just take the overpaid, inconsistent, and streaky Jarry for free. Pens fans have been booing him. Jarry’s looked bad at times in WBS. In this context, Dubas has managed to get Skinner, Kulak and a 2nd round draft pick basically for free, getting out of Jarry’s contract, while clearing out room for Murashov. Dubas can flip Skinner too, if they can rehab him. The Penguins are still in a rebuild, they should sell, not try for a playoff run too soon. Just keep accumulating assets. I thought this was a masterful move by Dubas.
Wish Jarry well in Edmonton, and hope he fixes himself.
Don’t reply to me if you won’t allow replies, Coward.
I have zero respect (it’s literally beyond pathetic) for the type who yaps and then hides, Purse Dog.
And I didn’t say he could fetch a first (limited market) but that it would be better to keep him rather than get so little for him but reading is hard when you are a purse dog hiding under the lipstick, I guess.
A house that has been rebuilt is worth more than one that is one fire.
Should you sell the rebuilt house at the same price it was listed after it was gutted by fire?
Yeah, we tried to give him away because he was terrible. He’s been really good and I don’t see signs that it’s a fluke (I do see signs that Silovs could be exposed routinely once a book gets out on him, OTOH).
I have solid hope for Murashov but he has not been as good as his numbers look and would likely benefit from a full AHL season.
Also, it’s unclear if Murashov will even be recalled…or are they going to use Skinner as their tanking tool?
We are sitting in a playoff spot. Playing good hockey. Well past Thanksgiving.
And we trade our best goalie (he’s been better than Murashov, even, despite the numbers) for a late second round pick.
Unless he has a sucker lined up to overpay for both Skinner and Kulak, this is just bizarrely stupid….?
The idea was to tank this year, wasn’t it? This is a good time to start sticking to that plan.
Skinner & Kulak both walk at the end of the year & EDM gets the privilege of paying Jarry $5.3 million per year for the next two years. I think that’s a win for PIT. (Unless you think they are somehow Cup contenders this year, which they are not.)
This team is not a real contender. Good enough to make the playoffs but not enough talent to scare anyone. This is about shedding Jarry’s contract to make room for Murashov and have the flexibility to infuse real talent onto the roster in the offseason. You could never feel good about this team’s prospects going to a season relying on Jarry.
You don’t understand; there’s no reward for Dubas to squeaking into the playoffs & extending the season by eight days. With a deep draft coming he’s wiser to position the club in a lottery spot where the luck of penguins seem to always be good. Don’t fret, Sid & Co will still be encouraged to go for it, but they’ll just not have Jarry to blame (either way).
Hurts a bit as the team has been delightful to watch this year, but it’s hard to envision this as a championship roster with Jarry earning $5.3M. Dubas kept his eye on the prize in this trade. They were willing to give him up for free, and two months of good play from a man who’s been as hot and cold as Jarry shouldn’t make you lose your mind.
That ship has sailed, Jolly Roger. Too late to tank our way to McKenna, who looks more like Lafreniere than Bedard as of now, anyway.
So we give up a playoff spot to finish with a 10th pick…for a late second…that’s literally the worst of all worlds and utterly moronic.
Could have just flipped Silovs and kept the good affordable tandem. Jarry’s and Murashov’s ages and contracts paired nicely.
A 10th is better than 15th. With Rust and Rakell gone, it could be a 5th.
Pursuading Crosby to go could land a top 3 for several years in a row. And eventually land a McD or a Drei, or even both.
Dubas at last is doing something useful.
Real rebuilds are not built off the backs of #10 or even #5 picks.
And pursuading the second best player ever who is playing his best (200 foot) hockey ever to go should not be the goal when he has 6 more good years in him.
Especially because the invented scenario (a top 3 pick for several years in a row) would mean we traded him to Buffalo and he agreed. Contenders have #30 picks to offer, not #3.
Goals Saved Above Expected is not a good metric for the sake of comparison. It depends on the GP.
All of the metrics below are far better:
Goals Saved Above Expected per 60
% of Expected Goals Saved Above Average
Save % Above Expected
None of these metrics depends on GP.
Oilers might not be done with trades
We couldn’t trade our 2019 first round pick for a rental when our window was still open because…reasons.
Had to have that warm body to toss into a trade in 2025, after all.
ALWAYS max out your window. Empty the cupboard. Don’t listen to the goofy hoarders.