The first item on the Edmonton Oilers’ emergency checklist was to waive goaltender Jack Campbell on Nov. 7. The second was to fire coach Jay Woodcroft five days later, just 13 games into the season. The third item? The next page in Jeff Jackson and Ken Holland’s playbook to save Edmonton’s season has to be to trade for a goaltender, right? The Oilers haven’t been able to buy a save this season. Edmonton’s goaltending is on a historically bad pace. They rank 32nd with an .867 save percentage.
For perspective, the Seattle Kraken were sunk by sieves in 2021-22 with the worst goaltending in the salary cap era – in fact, the worst goaltending performance over a full season in 30 years – and Seattle finished that season with an .880 save percentage. The trouble is, the Oilers aren’t outscoring their problems in net. Their once historically daunting power play has inexplicably gone dark. But that will come back, right? Connor McDavid isn’t going to linger in 61st place in scoring all season, is he? The goaltending, though, that might stic