Edmonton Oilers

[tweetdrivr]

It’s shocking to me that somehow we are still talking about Mike Smith as if his being the primary option for the Oilers isn’t a MASSIVE issue.

[kovalchuk17]

its probably better for the oilers that their goalies are struggling so its obvious to management they need to make a move. i can understand other teams probably want sky high prices for their competent goalies so we'll see what happens.

[doulos]

I believe what he's actually saying is over his last 126 games (4 seasons) Moke Smoth has a 0.905 sv% and that's all that should really be expected of him.

So, I tend to agree with this, but 126 games is an arbitrary number used to build a certain narrative. Also, his recent play is well below the .905, so regression to that would mean a marked improvement. His argument was just kind of odd given how he laidn it out.

I don't like Smith as an option and think it's asinine that he is still being looked at as one. I just thought the way he laid things out was weird and didn't make sense.

[rataylor22]

Its arbitrary in the sense that the specific number of 126 is arbitrary.

It's not arbitrary in the sense that it is Moke Smoth's personal last 4 complete seasons. I'm not, for example, removing the first 15 games of 2018 for some reason, or removing a random 10 games in the middle somewhere.

It's also not arbitrary in the fact that 4 seasons is a reasonable sample size, and there is a clear demarcation in his performance starting in 2018

2015-16 - 32 GP, 28.8 SA/g, 2.63 GAA, 0.916 Sv%
2016-17 - 55 GP, 33.1 SA/g, 2.92 GAA, 0.914 Sv%
2017-18 - 55 GP, 30.7 SA/g, 2.65 GAA, 0.916 Sv%
2018-19 - 42 GP, 25.5 SA/g, 2.72 GAA, 0.898 Sv%
2019-20 - 39 GP, 27.9 SA/g, 2.95 GAA, 0.902 Sv%
2020-21 - 32 GP, 28.8 SA/g, 2.31 GAA, 0.923 Sv%
2021-22 - 13 GP, 30.2 SA/g, 3.65 GAA, 0.891 Sv%

Obviously, the 2018-19 season is a clear cut-off point to reference back to. The next question is if you consider the obvious outlier season to be an obvious outlier, which everyone else does but for whatever reason you seem to not want to. If you treat that year as his career average (0.912), then his average Sv% is 0.902. Sure he is still underperforming that. If you remove that season entirely he has been averaging an 0.899. Sure he is still underperforming that. But then we also have aging curves, and Smith is 39. It is more likely this year is part of a continued downward trend due to age than it is that he will regress back to a 0.905 goalie or better. It's more reasonable he might regress back to an 0.900 with more starts, but that obviously is not good enough goaltending to actually help Edmonton.

[doulos]

Ok then.

We all agree Mike Smith is not the answer.

[hockeyrobot]

Back to back weekend early afternoon games vs Florida and Carolina. What the hell did Edmonton do to deserve this!??

[lobo1969]

Back to back weekend early afternoon games vs Florida and Carolina. What the hell did Edmonton do to deserve this!??

Already a successful weekend considering the opposition. Oiler's goaltending finally stole a game.... shout out to Derek Ryan!

[Stifler]

Nice garbage ghost point by McDavid. Nurse should be credited eith that assist on the 3rd Ryan goal.

[hockeyrobot]

Huge win today. I saw it at 4-3 and just assumed it would end up 5-4 Florida.

[saucelife90]

Sources say Varly won't move his NTC to get shipped to the Oilers

[2014olympicgold]

Sources say Varly won't move his NTC to get shipped to the Oilers

There was talk about how he might want to stay in NY because of Sorokin being the only other Russian on the roster. It might make his decision to waive his MNTC (Submits 16 team no trade list) more picky.

[Axeman33]

Sources say Varly won't move his NTC to get shipped to the Oilers

So I am assuming Holland has made an offer for him if this has come out. Again, you can't say Holland has not attempted to improve his goaltending if that is the case.

[rataylor22]

You don't have to carry water for him in every post about Edmonton it's really ok.

[2014olympicgold]

Rumoured asking price is a 2nd+3rd for Varly which the Oilers can't trade their 2022 versions of the picks. So it would need to be the 2023 draft as well.

[rataylor22]

Ken Holland actively chose to enter this season with Moke Smoth and Mokko Koskonen as his goaltenders. He should be criticized for not upgrading in the offseason and he should be criticized for not upgrading now. It doesn't matter if he is "trying", he is failing. You don't get a degree if you try really hard but fail every course.