It’s tough for the coach that used him to jolt a lineup in danger of drifting off course in the playoffs two years in a row to sit him out. But with the Edmonton Oilers needing a boost to their season last month, a changing of the goaltending guard was in order. The team dealt Stuart Skinner to the Pittsburgh Penguins for one piece of it: Tristan Jarry. The other arrived in the form of injury relief for Jarry himself: Connor Ingram. Together, Edmonton’s new net tandem has helped the team turn its fortunes around in the standings and on the stats sheet. What it now means, though, is Calvin Pickard is on the outside looking in, the Oilers’ third option in net. And not lost on head coach Kris Knoblauch is how important Pickard was to the Oilers during their runs to the Stanley Cup Finals the last two seasons. Knoblauch turned to Pickard in both playoffs when Skinner struggled: in 2024 during their grinding, seven-game, second-round clash with the Vancouver Canucks, and in 2025 when the Los Angeles Kings came out gangbusters to overwhelm the Oilers early in their first-round set. “He’s won a lot of important hockey games for us,” the coach told reporters Wednesday after practice. Knoblauch sat a slumping Skinner in favour of Pickard in May 2024 to try to spark his team heading into Game 4 of their second-round series against the Canucks down two games to one. Pickard, who came into the previous match – an Oilers loss – in relief of Skinner, made 19 saves as the Oilers tied the series that game. He started again and played well in a Game 5 loss, and was replaced by Skinner, who found his focus and played a big role in the Oilers’ series victory over their Pacific Division rivals in a decidedly fierce seven games. A year later, Skinner sputtered in the first two games of the playoffs against the Kings. Pickard went on to start the next seven games, the first six come-from-behind wins in defeating L.A. and going up two-games-to-none against the Vegas Golden Knights, before getting injured and being replaced by Skinner. And now it’s eight months later, Skinner is gone, and Jarry and Ingram each sport goals-against averages under 2.50 and save percentages above .900, marks Skinner and Pickard haven’t reached this season in blue and orange. Some of that is team play, but there’s psychology involved, too. “Goaltending kind of goes with how the team goes,” star Oilers captain Connor McDavid said Wednesday. “There is obviously some room to make a difference, and they’ve both done that.” Knoblauch, who hasn’t yet decided who will start in goal Thursday against Jarry’s former Pittsburgh Penguins team, is riding the hot hands of his new tandem. “We’ve got two goalies, one that we traded for who we believe is a starter, and another guy who we called up because of injury and was kind of insurance for us who has been playing phenomenally,” the coach said. “Unfortunately for (Pickard), he’s the odd guy out right now, but when I look back and think about the contributions he’s made for our team with his play and just being a character, quality person, it’s difficult to see him in that situation.”
