The Common Denominator Among Elite Teams
The NHL has long been a copycat league, as every offseason teams look at the organizations that had the most on-ice success and ask themselves, “What do they have that we don’t?” Now, as the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights compete in the Stanley Cup Finals, there appear to be glaring differences between their rosters, given that they took different paths to build them. While the Hurricanes have relied on drafting and development, using free agency and trades to supplement their homegrown talent, the Golden Knights have been aggressive in free agency and on the trade market, using future assets to grab talent that helped them win immediately. As glaring as their differences are, there is one obvious similarity, and that is that both teams have avoided handing out disastrous contracts, and it’s clearly a big reason why they are where they are.
Sure, you can point to the elite players, fantastic coaching, and strong drafting and development, but those factors are buoyed by the fact that both Carolina and Vegas have spent relatively wisely as it pertains to the salary cap. In fact, if you look back at all four conference finalists, there aren’t many albatross contracts to be found. The Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens have a couple of tough cap hits in Josh Anderson of the Habs and Ross Colton of the Avalanche, but both men have just one year left on their respective deals, at a $4MM AAV for Colton and $5.5MM for Anderson. Carolina also has a problematic contract in Jesperi Kotkaniemi, but the remainder of his deal can be bought this summer for 1/3 of the cost because of his age.
Even going back to last season, when the final four featured the Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, and Dallas Stars — those teams had relatively efficient salary cap structures, with their highest-paid players generally performing at or above the value of their cap hits, allowing management to build deeper rosters around them.
If you look at Edmonton as an example, they have quite a few bad contracts on the books now and have taken on arguably two of the worst contracts in the last 12 months, signing Trent Frederic to an eight-year deal and trading for what is left of goaltender Tristan Jarry’s albatross of a deal. Those poor contracts hurt the Oilers this season and could become very problematic going forward if Edmonton can’t find a way to navigate them.
It’s been a long-standing issue in the NHL, as countless teams have signed bad contracts that killed their contention window. The Pittsburgh Penguins likely shut the door on their window of contention eight years ago when they signed defenseman Jack Johnson in free agency and, the following season, traded for Erik Gudbranson. That left the Penguins paying two of the worst defensemen in the league north of $7MM combined during the 2018-19 season, before they were promptly swept in the first round by the New York Islanders.
Those bad contracts in the $3MM-$5MM add up over time, especially if you pile a few of them onto your ledger. In a hard cap league, every dollar matters, and the teams contending this season know that and have been keenly aware of how not to spend cap dollars. A $4MM cap hit tied up in an underperforming veteran isn’t horrible in a vacuum, but two of them could be a top-four defenseman, or a top-six winger, or even a second-line center.
The Hurricanes have long been accused of not spending big money, but the truth is that the team has avoided many long-term mistakes. Their core players, who were drafted and/or developed in the organization, are well compensated but still provide surplus value. Sebastian Aho remains a legitimate first-line center and is making just $9.75MM long term. Andrei Svechnikov continues to be a top-six impact winger at just $7.75MM per season. Both men remain on the right side of 30, continuing Carolina’s tradition of regularly paying players based on future value rather than past performance.
The Golden Knights have always been spenders during their short existence, but they, too, have paid for future performance and haven’t been shy about trading away popular players if it means freeing up cap space to improve the team. The team had no issue dumping goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury just a year after he won the Vezina Trophy. Fleury was beloved in Vegas, but the team was in the game of paying for future production and saw the writing on the wall with his play.
Hockey fans like to point to Vegas’ hidden competitive advantage, but the truth is that their advantage has been not handing out disastrous long-term contracts. And while every contract they have isn’t a bargain, no one is significantly underperforming relative to their cap hit, showing that championship teams are often built by avoiding big mistakes, coupled with making solid moves.
Over the next few weeks, nearly every general manager who did not win the cup will make a rash decision, justifying it by saying their team is one move away from being a contender. Some of these GMs will be praised for winning the summer, convincing themselves that the big-money contract was necessary to elevate the club. And while not every UFA signing will be a disaster, some teams will get into bidding wars and sign a player to a contract that will be bought out by their successor. But that is the price of giving top money to the wrong players, and it’s something the best teams in the NHL have managed to avoid.
Penguins Should Consider Signing Matt Murray
The Pittsburgh Penguins appear likely to lose goaltender Stuart Skinner in free agency when it hits on July 1st. Skinner was acquired during the season as part of the Tristan Jarry trade and was good for Pittsburgh, but was reportedly very well-liked in the dressing room. The Penguins are poised to go very young in net next season with the returning Arturs Silovs and rookie sensation Sergei Murashov. While those two have shown promise, neither is a sure thing, and the Penguins should be, and likely will be, on the hunt for a competent veteran who could step in if the team’s goaltending goes sideways. Enter former Penguins starting goaltender and two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray, a netminder that Pittsburgh should seriously consider as their third-string option.
Now, Murray is no longer an NHL starter, and it’s fair to wonder whether his body can even hold up as a regular backup. But it’s still clear that he can play when healthy, given his body of work over the last two seasons. This past year in Seattle, Murray dressed for five games with the Kraken, going 0-2-1 with a .922 SV% and a 2.21 GAA before suffering an injury that sidelined him for most of the season. And therein lies the issue with Murray. He’s been hurt a lot.
The 32-year-old Murray has not played more than 30 games in a single season since the 2019-20 campaign, when he was still with the Penguins, and really can’t be expected to take regular starts given how his body has broken down. But Pittsburgh has what is perhaps the perfect role for him as their third stringer, and because Murray spent so much time on the injured reserve last year, he is eligible to sign an incentive-laden contract, which may be something he pursues.
Murray will likely be looking for an opportunity to get significant playing time if his body can hold up, which is why Pittsburgh might be the right fit for him. Pittsburgh could pay Murray NHL money, keep him up with the big club, and give him the occasional spot start to give Murashov and Silovs a rest, or they could bounce him back and forth between the AHL and the NHL and pay him his one-way salary. Either way, Murray collects his NHL paycheck, and the Penguins have their third-string safety net as well as Murray’s mentorship to assist Murashov and Silovs. That last piece, Murray’s ability to provide guidance to the Penguins’ young netminders, is perhaps the most important, as it would give Murashov the type of mentor that Murray had when he was a rookie, with Marc-Andre Fleury backing him up on the way to back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Murray is a very different personality from Fleury, but he’s been through everything a rookie can go through in the NHL (twice), and his disposition would be incredibly valuable to Murashov, while also giving Pittsburgh one of the better third options in the league. Murray could also provide valuable insight into mental and physical preparation, as well as the injuries and issues he’s dealt with since being traded by the Penguins. Murray’s career has gone off the rails, and it was hard to foresee that a decade ago, when he was leading the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups. But with those tough times come tough lessons, and that could be invaluable information for both Murashov and Silovs.
The other part of this equation is that the Penguins realistically have their AHL tandem set for next season in Joel Blomqvist and Taylor Gauthier. Blomqvist will likely get the lion’s share of the AHL starts, and the Penguins might not want to disrupt that continuity if there is an injury at the NHL level. Having Murray available as a potential third goalie in the NHL would allow Pittsburgh to have that in place rather than shuttling a goalie back and forth if injuries come up, which they might.
Now, there are obviously some roster logistics at play if the Penguins were to keep three NHL goalies on the roster, and teams typically don’t like to do this. But if any organization knows how fragile a young goaltender can be, it’s the Penguins. This isn’t to say it’s the Penguins’ fault, but if you look back at the last 20 years, Fleury, Murray, and Tristan Jarry have all been the Penguins’ starters during that time, and all three were effectively broken at some point. Of the three, only Fleury was able to resurrect his career and continue, while Murray and Jarry have floundered despite early success.
Goaltending is perhaps the hardest position in sports to project, and you never really know how things will play out. The Penguins have a very special prospect in Murashov, and he has the talent to be an NHL superstar. Throwing him to the wolves without a safety net next season could be disastrous, especially given how allergic to defensive hockey the Penguins have historically been. Having Murray in the fold isn’t going to take a ton of pressure off Murashov, but it does give him an outlet, a mentor, and a safety net when he will need to navigate stormy waters. It also won’t cost the Penguins much, other than a roster spot and a league-minimum salary.
Assessing The Oilers Options For Tristan Jarry
Heading into the summer of 2025, many hockey pundits and commentators were discussing the Pittsburgh Penguins’ options for goaltender Tristan Jarry. For his part, Jarry had just cleared waivers in early 2025, and it appeared the Penguins would be boxed into the remaining three years of his contract, which carried a $5.375MM cap hit. He seemed unmovable, and the Penguins were more than willing to move him, offering him to the entire league for nothing on multiple occasions. This wasn’t the first season in which the chatter around Jarry was negative, as the sentiment to move him was the same at the start of the 2024-25 season. Now, the Jarry problem has become an Edmonton Oilers problem after the team paid a premium in December for a trade that was disastrous, to put it generously. The Oilers need better goaltending, but they have a massive black cloud in Jarry’s contract, which remains nearly unmovable. The team needs to find a path forward for Jarry, but their options are limited.
The first option is a buyout, which, according to PuckPedia, would save Edmonton $666,667 this season and $1,166,667 next season, followed by a $458K cap penalty over the next two seasons. Effectively, the Oilers would still carry a $4.7MM cap hit this year and a $4.2MM cap hit next season, making a buyout a silly proposition and one Edmonton is unlikely to use.
The team would be better served by simply burying Jarry in the AHL for the season, which would provide more relief. The formula next season would be the NHL league minimum ($850K) plus $375K, resulting in $1.225MM in cap relief for the Oilers, a better number than a buyout, which would carry an additional two years of cap penalty. Pittsburgh used this tactic on multiple occasions, with Jarry playing 12 AHL games during the 2024-25 season.
Then there is the trade option, which at this point doesn’t look like an option at all. Stranger things have happened, and no one expected Jarry to be moved this past year. Jarry started last season fairly well in Pittsburgh, giving the Penguins 14 games of above-average goaltending before GM Kyle Dubas leveraged that to send Jarry to the Oilers in a trade. Edmonton sent Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round draft pick back to Pittsburgh in return for the 31-year-old Jarry in what was a heavility criticized transaction from the Oilers perspective. There isn’t a trade like that out there for the Oilers, and even if Jarry were to start hot again this season, too many teams have seen this movie before, as it’s been common for Jarry to start seasons well and end them poorly. After all, Jarry is a two-time all-star and has even garnered Vezina Trophy talk in some seasons prior to the Christmas break, but it’s almost an annual occurrence for him to fall apart in the second half, which is alarming to put it mildly.
If Edmonton wants to trade for Jarry, it will need to pursue one of two strategies. It will either need to move Jarry for an equally undesirable contract, of which there are a lot, or attach assets to Jarry and move him in a trade package, similar to the way the Dallas Stars traded defenseman Matt Dumba to Pittsburgh last summer. The Penguins received a second-round pick for their troubles, a steep price for Dallas to pay to rid itself of one season of Dumba’s $3.75MM cap hit. In another transaction the year prior, the Blues paid Pittsburgh a second-round pick to take on the final two years of forward Kevin Hayes’s contract, which carried a cap hit of $3.571MM.
Now, the salary cap environment has changed dramatically in recent seasons, meaning that teams have more cap space and more teams might be willing to take on a contract like Jarry’s, which could bring the price down. However, one of the teams with ample cap space is Pittsburgh, and they probably aren’t keen to bring him back into the fold, even if they are compensated to do so. Jarry also has a 12-team no-trade list, which will further complicate things, but it does leave 18 teams available to work with if Edmonton is willing to part with some assets to move him. Jarry makes quite a chunk of money for a player who might not be NHL caliber anymore, meaning that if Edmonton wants to dump his contract, they might have to pay a second-round pick or more. There is also the issue of Edmonton’s desperation, which could drive the price even higher if they paint themselves into a corner and have no choice but to get him off their books.
The other strategy mentioned earlier might be the best for the Oilers: trading Jarry for another bad NHL contract. Would Pittsburgh consider taking back Jarry if it meant they could send Ryan Graves to Edmonton? Unlikely, but there are plenty of Graves-type contracts around the league, and plenty of teams motivated to get out from under them.
An option could be to move Columbus netminder Elvis Merzlikins, who has one year left on his deal and a cap hit near Jarry’s ($5.4MM). Merzlikins hasn’t been an average goaltender for nearly five years and was below average again this year, posting a -7.3 goals saved above expected (as per MoneyPuck). Acquiring him would shorten the window during which Edmonton is on the hook for a high-priced, below-average goaltender, although Columbus might ask for a small asset to take on the extra year on Jarry’s contract.
There is also a possibility that Jarry is packaged with another bad contract on the Oilers, such as Trent Frederic or Darnell Nurse, to facilitate a swap for a higher-priced bad contract from another team. At some point, one of those swaps is going to take place, given the sheer volume of NHL teams carrying high-priced, bonus-laden, unmovable contracts.
Could The Penguins Weaponize Their Cap Space Once Again?
When Kyle Dubas took over the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2023, the team had very little in the way of prospects or draft pick capital. They also had an aging, expensive core that had just missed the playoffs and were about the least appealing general manager job in the entire NHL. That first summer, Dubas attempted to retool the team, adding veterans such as defensemen Erik Karlsson and Ryan Graves, as well as forwards Lars Eller and Noel Acciari. The strategy failed as the Penguins struggled throughout the season, and by the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, they were sellers, trading star forward Jake Guentzel, which kicked off what many thought would be a rebuild. But Dubas used a different strategy and began weaponizing his cap space to retool the team by taking on aging veterans with bad contracts, as well as underperforming vets who were looking to rebuild their stock. Now, with the Penguins coming off a postseason appearance, is Dubas done taking on these contracts, or will he once again try to acquire bad contracts and draft picks with an eye towards the future?
To understand the strategy being discussed, one must look back to July 1st, 2024, when the Penguins acquired Kevin Hayes from the St. Louis Blues. Initially, it was a head-scratcher, as the Penguins didn’t look like a team that would add veterans to their lineup. Once the full trade details were released, Dubas’ thinking became clear: the Penguins walked away with a second-round pick. Dubas deployed the same tactic when he acquired Cody Glass from the Nashville Predators, netting two draft picks. He then used it again in 2025, acquiring Matt Dumba and a second-round pick from the Dallas Stars, as well as Connor Clifton and, you guessed it, a second-round pick from the Buffalo Sabres. These trades were all big wins for Pittsburgh in terms of paying out a bloated contract and collecting picks, but they did nothing for their current NHL roster, with the exception of Glass, who was shipped to the Devils for more draft picks at the trade deadline in 2025.
At the time of those moves, Dubas didn’t have a ton of cap space, but he had enough to get creative. This summer, he is holding north of $40MM in available cap space and could use the same tactic again, but will he? The free agent market is thin, with very few available impact players and quite a few teams with cap space. This could make Dubas’ play a bit of a tough sell, as other teams might pivot to his strategy to scoop up extra picks and prospects if they don’t plan to spend their cap space anyway. But there are a number of teams in cap trouble (Vegas, Dallas, Colorado, and Edmonton) that would probably love to shed a bad contract or two if the price is right.
Edmonton would surely love to dump the two years left on goaltender Tristan Jarry’s contract, but the likelihood of Pittsburgh taking him back is slim to say the least, even if it would be poetic. The same could be said for Dallas, which would probably like to dump Tyler Seguin and Ilya Lyubushkin’s contracts. There are always teams desperate to open up space, and for the last two years they’ve called Dubas and the Penguins.
With all of that being said, there is one other big factor that could influence Dubas’ decision on how to allocate cap space, and that is what if he wants to make some big acquisitions to improve the team for this upcoming season? There might not be a lot of UFAs on the market, but there are a pile of big names who could be on the move, including Jason Robertson, who is an RFA, as well as Auston Matthews, Elias Pettersson and more. All of those aforementioned players make north of $10MM annually, or, in the case of Robertson, will make north of $10MM, and that is a number the Penguins could easily absorb.
But there are a few major reasons that Pittsburgh could pursue a blend of acquiring big names and taking on veterans on bad contracts. They simply have so much cap space, and Dubas has already said he doesn’t want to blow it all on long-term, win-now moves that will box him in financially a few years from now. Dubas is keenly aware that the Penguins aren’t likely to be a Stanley Cup contender next season, and the prospects in the Penguins system aren’t all arriving at once, meaning they will come in waves (or at least that’s what Dubas hopes). There is a very real possibility that Dubas takes on short-term vets who can still play but are overpaid, and also lets his prospects develop in key roles.
It’s a strategy that has paid off handsomely for the Penguins thus far, and one that other teams might start to use as well if they are in a position to do so. A good indication of that is the Chicago Blackhawks taking on Andrew Mangiapane’s contract for this upcoming season as part of the Jason Dickinson move at the deadline. This could drive down the price Dubas receives for taking on bad contracts in the future, but there is no shortage of bad NHL contracts, and Dubas could continue to acquire them as he tries to build the Penguins into a long-term Stanley Cup contender.
The Oilers Are Stuck In A Cycle Self-Correction
It’s no secret that the Edmonton Oilers are in win-now mode, and that mode has shifted to pure desperation as they enter the final two years of superstar captain Connor McDavid’s current contract. It’s completely understandable that the Oilers have spent years sacrificing future assets to win now, given the window they are in with the best player in the world on their roster. However, that desperation to win now has led Oilers management to make aggressive moves, many of which have been disasters. Their desperation has often forced them into awful trades or signings, sometimes to undo ill-advised moves or simply because they thought they had to fix a roster hole. This line of thinking has painted the Oilers into the corner they currently find themselves in, out of the playoffs in the first round, with an unhappy superstar and a fanbase left shaking their heads.
Edmonton has repeatedly paid a premium to plug holes in the lineup or to undo prior mistakes in player acquisition. This has been especially true for the Oilers’ depth, defensive reliability, and secondary scoring, where they’ve either ignored the problem or acquired players who created a hole. From the outside, it feels as though Edmonton is constantly chasing fixes, reacting to structural roster issues rather than building a roster with any semblance of a long-term plan. As mentioned, the Oilers sacrificed future assets to win now, but they’ve also repeatedly spent additional assets to fix the holes their prior aggressive moves often created. This type of thinking is often called the sunk cost fallacy, in which someone doubles down on a bad decision because too much has already been invested.
There are few better examples of Edmonton’s reactionary thinking than the Jason Dickinson trade with the Chicago Blackhawks prior to this year’s NHL Trade Deadline. The Oilers released a video of the team’s management group discussing the potential trade for Dickinson. Although the clips were just 2 minutes, they painted a picture of a management group with a relatively shallow, short-sighted understanding of the trade they were trying to make. Effectively, Oilers general manager Stan Bowman was trying to plug a hole on his roster that he thought he’d filled at last year’s trade deadline with the trade for Trent Frederic, only to see Frederic implode this season after signing an eight-year extension last summer. Simply put, the trade felt like damage control stemming from previous poor decisions with Frederic and the free-agent signing of Andrew Mangiapane, who was included in the Dickinson trade as a salary dump after a poor showing in Edmonton.
Mangiapane is a clear example of Edmonton’s mismanagement and inability to find the right pieces for the right roles. Signed to a two-year, $7.2MM deal, the Oilers hoped that playing alongside their skilled players would reignite the offensive side of Mangiapane’s game; however, that did not happen, and he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks less than one year into the deal.
As good an example as Mangiapane is, there is no better example than goaltender Tristan Jarry. Jarry was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in December, when the Oilers were in desperate need of better goaltending. The trade came less than three months after Bowman had stated that he “Liked where Stuart Skinner’s game was.” Bowman’s comments came on the heels of a summer with no movement in the Oilers’ crease, despite it being a clear area of weakness.
Skinner began the season with the Oilers, going 11-8-4 with an .891 SV% and a 2.83 GAA. At the time of the trade, Skinner was ranked 32nd in Goals Saved Above Expected, while Jarry was 22nd. Edmonton hoped that moving Skinner for Jarry would be a massive upgrade and even included defenseman Brett Kulak and a second-round pick.
The trade was a colossal disaster for the Oilers, as Jarry reverted to his recent form, going 9-6-2 in 19 games with Edmonton, posting an .857 SV% and a 3.86 GAA. Jarry wasn’t just bad in Edmonton; he was among the worst netminders in the league after the trade.
Had Edmonton management simply addressed the issue last summer, they likely would have avoided a trade for Jarry, which will have repercussions for years, as Jarry has two years left on his contract, a deal that is effectively buyout-proof.
The Oilers’ asset recycling continued with the Jarry trade and has become an alarming trend for a team that is shutting its own contention window with each passing season. The Oilers had a clear need to upgrade their roster construction last summer, particularly their goaltending and defense. Instead, they prioritized adding toughness, veterans, and depth scoring, and the results this past season speak for themselves.
The team clearly (and correctly) has a mandate to win now because of the presence of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but that urgency has distorted management’s decision-making, prompting panic move after panic move in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle. Management often overvalues urgency and undervalues patience, particularly in player development and salary-cap management.
A persistent narrative in Oilers fandom is that the team is one piece away, but for a team that constantly patches holes mid-season, that logic seems flawed and generally indicates poor organizational planning. You could certainly point to trades and moves in a vacuum and say they worked, but when you zoom out and look at the broader picture, a pattern starts to emerge.
The pattern is that the Oilers have rarely built forward and have spent most of the McDavid/Draisaitl era trying to escape the consequences of their past bets. If the Oilers want to finally bring a Stanley Cup back to Northern Alberta, some hard conversations need to be had among management to break this cycle.
Snapshots: Stanley, Jarry, Bedard
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Logan Stanley‘s status for game six tonight against the Boston Bruins is questionable as he manages an illness, reports The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn. Stanley missed Sabres practice on Thursday but Ruff said he was feeling better then compared to how he felt on Wednesday. If he isn’t able to dress in tonight’s game, Michael Kesselring would likely get the call.
Kesselring, 26, would be making his playoff debut if he ends up dressing for the Sabres tonight. A key piece of the team’s return in exchange for forward JJ Peterka, Kesselring spent most of 2025-26 sidelined by injury. He played in just 34 games and his unavailability is part of what prompted Buffalo to acquire two defensemen at the trade deadline. He had a strong season the year prior in Utah, though, and there is hope he can rediscover that form with a stretch of good health. If Kesselring does play, his entrance into the lineup would mean the Sabres would be staffing their third pairing with two right-shot defensemen, the other being Conor Timmins.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- The Edmonton Oilers will be under a significant amount of pressure to upgrade their roster this summer after a disappointing first-round exit, and an area likely to receive considerable attention is their goaltending. Neither veteran Tristan Jarry nor Connor Ingram inspired much confidence, and The Athletic’s Chris Johnston and Sean Gentille wrote that “it wouldn’t be surprising if Edmonton looked to move on” from Jarry. The 31-year-old, who was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins early in 2025-26, has two years remaining on his deal at $5.375MM AAV. Finding a taker for Jarry could prove difficult at that cap hit, as he posted an .858 save percentage in 19 games in Edmonton. A buyout wouldn’t yield significant cap savings.
- Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard won’t play for Team Canada at the upcoming IIHF Men’s World Championships, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Bedard reportedly wanted to represent his home country at the tournament but was told the “best thing” would be for him to focus on rehabbing his injury. Bedard missed time in December and January with a shoulder injury. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick, who turns 21 in July, scored 30 goals and 75 points in 69 games this season.
Oilers Starting Tristan Jarry In Game 4
There’s more chaos coming from one of the most chaotic series from Round One of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. According to a report from Sportsnet, the Edmonton Oilers are switching to Tristan Jarry for a pivotal Game 4 against the Anaheim Ducks.
Edmonton’s problems in the crease have become like a broken record for many following the NHL, and there’s been no shortage of drama in the opening round of the postseason. Although the Oilers have been scoring at a relatively high pace (as expected), netminder Connor Ingram has completely bottomed out, stopping only 79 of 93 shots (.849 SV%) while letting in 4.70 goals a game on average.
The Oilers are more than used to this reality by now. Edmonton hasn’t had competent goaltending for a few years now. Stuart Skinner showed flashes of brilliance during the 2023-24 season and helped the franchise reach its first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 2006. Despite a down regular season, the Oilers again reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2025, this time despite Skinner, who posted a .889 SV% in 15 postseason contests.
Back in December, when Edmonton acquired Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins, they thought he would be the answer. In their defense, Jarry was backstopping a resurgent Penguins organization, managing a 9-3-1 record in 13 starts with a .909 SV% and 2.66 GAA.
Then, like many other netminders, everything came apart in Alberta.
Including a stint on the injured reserve, Jarry was disastrous down the stretch with the Oilers, posting a 9-6-2 record in 16 games with a .857 SV%, 3.86 GAA, and an eye-popping -16.6 Goals Saved Above Average. That production, or lack thereof, forced Edmonton’s hand into running with Ingram for the last bit of the regular season and the first three games of the postseason.
Although the Oilers aren’t on the brink of elimination, this already feels like the last attempt to right the ship. If the Ducks get to Jarry, it’s hard to envision Edmonton having any confidence in going back to Ingram with how things have gone so far.
Snapshots: Winterton, Pilling, Jarry
The Seattle Kraken announced today that forward Ryan Winterton has taken a temporary leave of absence to attend to a family matter. The Kraken did not provide further detail and requested that the privacy of Winterton and his family be respected. As is always the case with situations like these, what happens on the ice is secondary. With that said, Winterton’s absence does have lineup implications for a Kraken team that is still under pressure to chase down a playoff spot.
Winterton had missed Seattle’s last two games with an illness. Before then, he had been on one of the stronger runs of his young NHL career. He scored a goal and an assist in Seattle’s 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers on March 15, and had a solid five points in his last 11 games playing largely in a bottom-six capacity. When he was last in the lineup, Winterton occupied a fourth-line left wing spot, skating alongside Ben Meyers and Jacob Melanson. 21-year-old Jani Nyman, who has 18 goals and 27 points in just 29 AHL games this season, was placed into that fourth-line role with Winterton sidelined.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- The Minnesota Wild have interest in signing NCAA free agent center Nathan Pilling of the University of St. Thomas, Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic reported today. Pilling, who turns 22 in June, ended his first campaign of college hockey with 15 goals and 29 points in 38 games. The Calgary native, who was a point-per-game pivot in his final campaign in the WHL, has previously been tied to two NHL teams. He attended the development camp of the San Jose Sharks in 2024, and the Ottawa Senators in 2025. Pilling was ranked as the No. 5 NCAA free agent by the team at Elite Prospects, with the outlet projecting him as a “potential bottom-6 checker” with “versatile upside.”
- Veteran netminder Tristan Jarry will return to the crease for the Edmonton Oilers at some point during the team’s upcoming two-game road trip, head coach Kris Knoblauch told the media today. Jarry hasn’t made a start since surrendering seven goals in a loss to the Dallas Stars, which was on March 12. The 30-year-old began the season with a strong 14 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins, posting a .909 save percentage and 9-3-1 record. He’s struggled mightily since his trade to Edmonton, though, putting up a grisly .855 save percentage and 4.17 goals-against average in 15 games. With the Oilers looking to build momentum and lock down a playoff spot in a wide-open Pacific Division, they’ll be hoping Jarry can rediscover some of the form he had at the start of the season.
Pacific Notes: Ingram, Jarry, Chernyshov, Nugent-Hopkins
The Edmonton Oilers have a new starting goalie. According to TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, the Oilers have named Connor Ingram the team’s starter moving forward, replacing Tristan Jarry for the foreseeable future.
It’s an unsurprising development for Jarry. Despite a strong start to the season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jarry has been downright awful in Edmonton, particularly since returning from injury in mid-January. Upon his return from injury, Jarry has managed a 4-7-1 record in 12 games with an .846 SV%.
Meanwhile, Ingram, while not producing earth-shattering numbers, is the Oilers’ best option to turn to. Over 20 games this season, the 28-year-old veteran has collected a 9-6-2 record with a .891 SV% and 2.79 GAA. Still, especially as Edmonton approaches the playoffs, they’ll need to find a plan for Jarry to regain his confidence unless Ingram takes his game to another level.
Additional notes from the Pacific Division:
- The San Jose Sharks have yet to confirm any serious injury for young prospect Igor Chernyshov. In yesterday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, Chernyshov suffered a head injury, which caused him to bleed and stumble in his attempts to get up. He was immediately taken to a hospital, and it was believed he had suffered a concussion at the very least. However, according to Sheng Peng of SJ Hockey Now, Chernyshov was completely fine at the hospital and was cleared of any serious injury.
- Back in Edmonton, Rishaug also confirmed that center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been designated a game-time decision ahead of tonight’s contest. Nugent-Hopkins didn’t play in Edmonton’s most recent game against the St. Louis Blues on Friday due to personal reasons. At the very least, it’s a positive sign that he hasn’t been ruled out entirely against the Nashville Predators.
The Danger Of Signing Goalies To Lucrative Contracts
The New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks are two of the NHL’s worst teams this season and are both on the verge of massive roster changes. While both teams face unique challenges, one parallel is that they’ve made a mess of their goaltending finances with pricey extensions that were miscalculations.
The Rangers and Canucks are far from alone in this predicament. High-priced extensions have also burned several other teams at the bottom of the standings, leaving them with goaltenders who had been performing well but whose play fell off a cliff after signing their new deals.
That isn’t necessarily the case for Shesterkin, however, it is the case for Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators, Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators, and Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils, who are all making big money on recent contract extensions, with no guarantees their play will turn around. This has left three teams with win-now rosters featuring goaltenders who are vastly overpaid.
It’s become a trend over the past five-plus years that teams signing goaltenders to expensive deals must be seriously concerned about their performance throughout the term of the agreement.
There is concern about every player’s performance after they sign a lucrative long-term deal. However, goaltenders have become a unique cause for concern lately, and it’s hard to say why.
In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, many veteran goaltenders on the wrong side of 30 would sign expensive long-term deals without so much as a second thought from their new teams. In July 2002, for example, goalie Curtis Joseph signed a three-year, $24MM contract with the Detroit Red Wings, even though it wasn’t the best offer on the table.
Joseph had a three-year $26MM offer from the Toronto Maple Leafs but opted to move to Detroit. Toronto then pivoted and signed Ed Belfour to a two-year, $13.5MM deal.
By today’s standards, those contracts aren’t eye-popping, and the term is relatively short. But Belfour and Joseph were 37 and 35, respectively, and there was a chance their play would drop off significantly during the brief time they were signed.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a team giving $8MM a season to a 35-year-old goaltender, and Joseph’s deal was inked 23 and a half years ago. The Senators gave Ullmark four years and $8.25MM annually just last year, but he had just turned 32 and was two seasons removed from a Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.
It was a pricey gamble for Ottawa and hasn’t looked like good value this season, but Ullmark has been dealing with personal issues, so it’s hard to project how the deal will work out long-term.
Circling back to the Rangers and Canucks, they are a tale of two teams whose expensive goaltending has led to team-wide issues, but for wildly different reasons. In Vancouver, Thatcher Demko was signed to a lucrative three-year deal at the start of free agency, worth $8.5MM annually.
It was a gamble by Vancouver, as they hoped the former Vezina Trophy finalist could bounce back from a poor showing last season. Had Demko had a good year, he would have been a candidate to get $9MM or more on a new contract, but Vancouver thought it was wise to jump the queue. It has not turned out well.
If Demko had played well, Vancouver likely would have paid him an AAV slightly higher than the $8.5MM they gave him, but would’ve been on the hook for more term, which would’ve been riskier. Instead, Vancouver made a different bet and is now on the hook for more term than Demko would’ve received in free agency. But hindsight is 20/20, and for the Canucks, they are stuck with the Demko deal, one they’d love to have back.
In New York, it was a different calculation. Rangers’ general manager Chris Drury believed he had a Stanley Cup contender on his hands, which meant doing everything he could to retain his Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender, Igor Shesterkin. Drury moved out his captain, Jacob Trouba, to open up space to sign Shesterkin to a record-breaking eight-year, $92MM contract.
While it was the right on-ice move given Trouba’s cap hit relative to his play, the Rangers have never been the same since the trade. New York fell off a cliff last season and has remained at the bottom of the league this year, despite Shesterkin being good.
But that is the issue: Shesterkin has only been good. In the years leading up to his extension, Shesterkin was elite.
His play in those seasons masked many of the Rangers’ problems and led Drury and New York management to think the team was much better than it actually was. Shesterkin’s goaltending was a mask, hiding the fact that Drury had built a fatally flawed roster that relied too much on out-of-this-world netminding, which was clearly unsustainable.
While the Rangers, Canucks, Devils and Predators aren’t the only teams with pricey goaltending, they are the most apparent examples of paying a premium for goaltending. But even middle-of-the-pack teams can run into issues where their extensions turn into disasters.
There are good examples in Washington: a few years ago, with Darcy Kuemper, who had just won a Stanley Cup, and Philipp Grubauer, who had been solid for years before signing as a free agent with Seattle and becoming unplayable in the NHL. Matt Murray in Ottawa was the same story, but none is more egregious and obvious than Tristan Jarry in Pittsburgh, who was recently dealt.
Pittsburgh is a relevant example because of Stuart Skinner, who has been a revelation with the Penguins but is a UFA at the end of the season. Pittsburgh already has its goalie of the future in tow in Sergey Murashov, and the Penguins would be wise to ride Skinner into the playoffs and then let him walk in the offseason if his salary demands exceed $5MM annually, which they surely will. It should be interesting to see the Skinner story unfold, but there is plenty of evidence that the Penguins would be wise to avoid giving term to a netminder who is unpredictable.