TORONTO — Stan Bowman said it all in 18 words.
“It’s not so much a comment on Stuart Skinner, We just felt it’s time for something different here.”
The Edmonton Oilers general manager had worked the goalie market since June, through free agency, training camp, and the first 30 games of the season. As he did so, the Stuart Skinner pattern played itself out as usual.
The team played poorly off the start of the season. So did Skinner.
The skaters picked up their team game in mid-November. So did Skinner.
That’s been Skinner’s M.O. in Edmonton all along: Didn’t cost you many games, but didn’t steal many either.
And if the pattern was going to be the pattern, then we all know how that movie ends — with Skinner being the second best goalie in a tight playoff series that sends Edmonton into another disappointing summer.
That’s where the “We just felt it’s time for something different here” part comes in.
In a blockbuster move Friday morning — ironically not 24 hours after Skinner had played perhaps his best game of the season in a 4-1 win over Detroit — the Edmonton Oilers sent local boys Skinner and defenceman Brett Kulak (Stony Plain, Alberta), plus a second-round draft pick in 2029 to Pittsburgh, in exchange for former Edmonton Oil King Tristan Jarry and (thus far) first-round bust Samuel Poulin, who reports to Bakersfield.
On paper it is at best a lateral move for Edmonton, with Jarry having made just eight NHL playoff starts to Skinner’s 50.
But by most accounts Jarry is the better netminder, and he grades out as a top-10 NHL goalie thus far in the 2025-26 season. But any improvement Bowman can claim in Jarry is thus far theoretical, and not such a step up in the goalie position that this deal does not raise an eyebrow.
Bowman is to some extent rolling the dice on Jarry, who becomes the one responsible for backstopping Connor McDavid’s team to that elusive Stanley Cup win.
“We’ve done a lot of work on this position, obviously. It gets a lot of attention,” said Bowman, in a massive understatement. “Tristan has had a really consistent performance as a pro, really up until last season. So we wanted to see how he started this year. We’ve watched him very closely.
“It wasn’t just about a couple of games here and there. It was about a career sample size.”
So, let’s talk career sample size:
Skinner’s career regular season save percentage is .904, with Jarry at .909 — and Skinner has played in front of a vastly better hockey team in Edmonton than has Jarry in Pittsburgh. This season, Jarry is at .909 to Skinner’s .891.
In the all-important post-season, where the sample size on Jarry is minute, he forged an .891 behind a Penguins team that never won a series while he was their netminder. Skinner, meanwhile, made 50 starts over a span where the Oilers won seven series, and he came away with an .893 save percentage.
“Looking at (Jarry’s) body of work over a number of years,” Bowman said. “A couple of thousand shots tends to tell you what that goalie can be. (But) it comes down to, in the end, one or two moments. For every goalie — not just the Oilers’ goalies.”
The historic perspective on this trade will be stark. Either Jarry takes the Oilers to a Stanley Cup and Bowman is a genius, or they fall short again and the Oilers GM didn’t get the job done.
When you’ve lost two straight Finals, that’s simply the reality. There is no middle ground in Edmonton — Bowman knew this when he came aboard.
Many of us expected that, if it was a Jarry-level goalie being acquired, then Skinner would stay in a 1 and 1-A situation. The fact Skinner is being replaced with Jarry — and Calvin Pickard remains as a clear No. 2 — throws some shade on this deal. Particularly considering Jarry’s injury history, which is far more prevalent than Skinner’s.
It is incumbent for Bowman to find a younger, better backup — likely by the trade deadline — with the caveat being Connor Ingram in Bakersfield, who thus far has an .868 in 10 games with the Condors this season.
Then there are the contracts — Jarry is signed for three more seasons after this one at $5.375 million, while Skinner will command somewhere in the $7 million range when he becomes an unrestricted free agent at year’s end.
If Bowman can upgrade on Pickard, and Jarry performs as expected, then the GM can be credited with stabilizing a key position on his team long-term.
“We have our goalie for the next three playoff runs, which I think is important,” Bowman said of Jarry. “He is signed, and it’s a number we’re going to be able to manage well in our salary cap. Tristan’s cap hit is very manageable.”
Edmonton loses the soon-to-be 32-year-old Kulak in the deal, and replaces him with the nearly 26-year-old Spencer Stastney in a separate deal with Nashville.
But the big move is in the crease, where the Stuart Skinner era comes to an end in Edmonton.
For all the saves made and series won, Skinner will be remembered by his hometown hockey fans for a glove save he didn’t make in Game 7 two springs ago, and as a guy who was good when well supported, but not good enough when the team needed a ‘tendy to stand on his head and steal one.
Us reporters will remember him as a stand-up, accountable, well-spoken man. At a position that gives us athletes who won’t speak to the media on a morning where they are that night’s backup, Skinner held massive scrums before a Stanley Cup start.
Truth be told, Stu Skinner weathered the storm in a Canadian market fabulously.
Alas, had he stopped more pucks, he’d still be there.
