As NHL training camps creep closer, the league’s trade wires have gone quiet — but not silent.
Every year, as rosters take shape and GMs get a clearer picture of what they have, opportunities surface. A surprise PTO, a late-summer trade, a waiver-wire pickup. The NHL calendar may slow down in August, but it rarely sleeps. And if history tells us anything, those small cracks in the roster walls can widen quickly when camp begins.
That’s why it wouldn’t be shocking to see more movement before the puck drops on preseason. Teams are still adjusting to off-season departures, rookies looking to break in, and cap constraints that didn’t magically vanish just because free agency has cooled. Somewhere out there, an opportunity exists for the right team at the right time.
For the Edmonton Oilers, that opportunity might be sitting squarely in Boston’s crease.
Edmonton Primed to Exploit Boston’s Crowded Crease With Deal for Mike DiPietro
Here’s the blunt truth: Edmonton can’t walk into another Stanley Cup chase with Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard as their goaltending tandem and expect the fan base — or the hockey world — to nod along quietly.
Skinner has proven stretches of quality, but there have also been lapses that make him hard to trust as a true No. 1. Pickard, at 33, has been more reliable in spot duty than anyone expected, but his ceiling is obvious.
The Oilers are a team built to win right now. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl remain in their primes. The supporting cast has been upgraded and tightened. And yet, the crease still feels like the soft underbelly. Fans have seen this story before, and their patience for “good enough” goaltending is gone.
If GM Stan Bowman and his staff don’t address it, they risk repeating the same “what if” chapters that have defined recent playoff exits.
Meanwhile, for the Boston Bruins, the problem is the opposite: too many goalies, not enough seats.
Jeremy Swayman is locked in as the franchise cornerstone. Joonas Korpisalo is an established veteran backup with 300-plus NHL games under his belt. And then there’s Mike DiPietro — 26 years old, fresh off a standout stretch in the American Hockey League, and signed this summer to a two-year, one-way deal worth $1.625 million.
Here’s the catch: try to sneak DiPietro through waivers to send him back to the AHL, and he’s almost certainly gone for nothing. Especially after his 2024-25 season with Providence, when DiPietro went 26-8-5 with a 2.05 goals against average and 0.927 save percentage, earning the Baz Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s top goaltender and a spot on the AHL First All-Star Team.
That’s a risk the Bruins can’t take. Which makes a trade not just logical, but inevitable.
A Third-Round Pick Could Be Enough to Bring Mike DiPietro to Edmonton
A third-round pick by Vancouver in the 2017 draft, DiPietro has been unable to find his path to the NHL level. But he’s turned himself into a model of consistency in the AHL, and at 26, DiPietro is young enough to grow into a bigger role. And with that one-way contract now in place, the Bruins’ leverage is limited — every GM in the league knows they can’t afford to bury him.
For the Oilers, this is the kind of move that makes too much sense to ignore. DiPietro wouldn’t come in to take the net outright, but he’d stabilize the tandem, push Skinner, and give the team a younger alternative to Pickard without risking the present. He also brings the hunger of a player who’s had to grind his way back from setbacks — something Edmonton’s locker room could use on the back end of its roster.
The cost? Not crippling. Boston isn’t in a position to demand a front-line player, and Edmonton won’t need to subtract from its NHL roster. A future draft pick — say, a 2026 third-rounder — should be enough to get a deal done. That’s fair value for a goalie the Bruins can’t keep and the Oilers desperately need.
Mike DiPietro isn’t a blockbuster name, and he isn’t the shiny superstar addition fans usually dream about. But championships aren’t always won with the shiny pieces — they’re often won with the right ones.
The Bruins’ logjam is Edmonton’s opening. The Oilers have the Cup window. And DiPietro, if brought in now, could be the kind of smart, under-the-radar move that steadies the position everyone knows is holding them back.
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