One of the major narratives surrounding the Edmonton Oilers is their need for goaltending. The tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard has been under scrutiny seemingly forever. The club’s playoff woes have landed on Skinner and Pickard despite their solid performances.
During this past offseason, much of the discussion focused on the Oilers landing a legitimate starting goaltender. Virtually every netminder in the league has been linked to the Oilers at one point or another.
One of those netminders has been Nashville Predators starter Juuse Saros. Chatter involving the Predators trading Saros has picked up amid Nashville’s slide to the bottom of the Central Division. While last year might have been an aberration, this year confirms the club is heading nowhere fast.
So, the chatter has once again picked up, with the Oilers at the forefront of trade talk. But one notable insider has poured cold water on that chatter. Frank Seravalli addressed the chatter linking Saros to the Oilers in a November 11 piece on B/R Open Ice.
In the discussion, Seravalli expounded on why Saros to the Oilers makes no sense. He stated:
“Saros wouldn’t be the choice for me for a number of reasons.” Servalli added, “He’s in the first year of an eight-year contract that will take him all the way to age 39. Two, his numbers have not been good for two consecutive seasons, this one and last. And three, from an overall holistic perspective, for a team that doesn’t really have the cap space and hasn’t devoted the cap space to goaltending, in many ways, what you have is what you get.”
Going off Seravalli’s comments, the Oilers don’t look poised to land a Grade-A goalie anytime soon.
Saros Wouldn’t be the Answer Even if Oilers Wanted Him to Be
Seravalli questioned Saros’ ability to lead the Oilers to a deep playoff run. In particular. Seravalli pointed out the lack of a solid track record for the 30-year-old netminder.
He pondered:
“But when it comes to his size and ability to win when it comes to the playoffs, that’s the big question everyone asks about Saros.”
Beyond Saros’ lack of proven track record, the one thing weighing heavily on Seravalli’s mind is the price the Oilers may have to pay to land a goaltender like Saros.
The price tag Nashville attaches to its franchise goalie may be too high for the Oilers to stomach at this point.
Edmonton Doesn’t Have Pieces to Make Deal Happen Anyway
Even if the Oilers were desperate enough to pay up for Saros, they don’t have the pieces to make a deal like this happen. If the Predators move Saros, it’ll be an admission they’re heading toward a rebuild. As such, Nashville will want futures it can utilize.
Edmonton doesn’t have those. They lack high-end prospects and are woefully short of draft picks. So, even if the Oilers wanted to go all-in, there’s not much the club could offer to a rebuilding team like the Predators.
So, it seems that, for better or worse, Edmonton will have to roll with Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard for the time being.
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