EDMONTON — We all play the draft game.
You know, the one where we look at some guy your favourite team picked who never became an NHLer, then search down below to see all the really good NHL players they could have chosen instead.
When it comes to Jesper Wallstedt and the Edmonton Oilers however, well, it’s a little more complicated than that.
Wallstedt and former Edmonton Oil Kings netminder Sebastien Cossa were the goalies of record in the 2021 draft, and both would be first-rounders. The Oilers, by all reports, very much liked Cossa.
They weren’t so sure on Wallstedt.
So, when Detroit snapped up Cossa with the 15th pick, the Oilers — drafting 20th in 2021 — had roughly 25 minutes to figure out what to do with their pick.
Finally, Edmonton was on the clock, and with Wallstedt sitting there for the taking the brain trust of GM Ken Holland and head scout Tyler Wright punted.
They traded down, receiving Minnesota’s first rounder, with which they selected Xavier Bourgault (since dealt away), and a third-round pick (Luca Meunzenberger) who never played.
The Wild scooped up Wallstedt. That’s Jesper Wallstedt, the six-foot-three, 215-pound, suddenly-a-Calder-Trophy-candidate who shut the Oilers out 1-0 Tuesday night at Rogers Place. The one who owns a stunning .944 save percentage this season.
The one with five shutouts in 15 NHL games played thus far. The one who has stopped 236 of 243 shots over his last seven wins.
“It’s fun. I’ve never played like this before, I don’t think,” Wallstedt said post-game. “I just can’t thank my teammates enough, nothing would be possible without them. I’m just trying to do my job and making a lot of saves, but you can’t do that without the way we’ve been playing tonight and every other game.”
The kid looked impenetrable Tuesday in front of a fanbase that’s begging for an upgrade in goal. It should be said that Stuart Skinner was excellent, beaten only on a long, screened slapshot, but how good would the Oilers look today with Wallstedt pushing Skinner for the No. 1 job?
Was there any extra motivation for Wallstedt, playing in this building, against this opponent?
“Not at all,” he said. “I’ve seen and I heard and there’s been way too much made about this. I’m drafted by Minnesota and I play here, and I love it since and that’s kind of the end of the conversation.”
OK then.
Let’s talk about the Oilers — who still have not won more than two consecutive games this season — a team that is simply trying to find a consistency to their defensive game these days. Trying to stack a good effort upon a good effort, and then do it again for a few more games after that.
If that was their goal, then you’d have to say they accomplished something on Tuesday.
“The last two games, we’ve given up one goal. For a team that has struggled to defend, that’s pretty good,” said Zach Hyman, whose team outshot and out-chanced a Wild team that is riding a 12-game points streak.
The game Edmonton rolled out Tuesday will earn them wins, and with the rest of the homestand comprised of visits by Seattle, Winnipeg, Buffalo and Detroit, they could yet accomplish their goal of righting the ship over this stretch of home games.
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“Four out of the last five (games), we’ve pretty much liked the effort,” said Mattias Ekholm of a span of games where Edmonton has gone 2-2-1. “Winning in this league is really hard, and right now we’re going through it a little bit. Even though we do seem to play decent — or actually really good tonight — we didn’t get any points, and that’s what matters.”
There’s a fine line in professional sports between being satisfied with anything less than a victory and realizing that the game Edmonton played against the red-hot Wild was excellent, and deserving of a better result.
“The NHL is about winning games,” agreed head coach Kris Knoblauch. “But in the long picture, I prefer that we play the right way. Play the right way, and we’re going to win more often than not.
“Tonight, we had an effort where we should come away with the two points more often than not,” he continued. “We’ve had some games this year where we were terrible (and won). Maybe our goaltender was better, or special teams, but there wasn’t much to like about our game. Tonight … if we play that game again, we’re going to get at least one, two, if not three or four goals.
“I’m definitely a glass half-full kind of guy right now.”
