How much longer can Oilers afford to wait to make a decision on their goalies?

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EDMONTON – As perhaps the best choice slipped away, and for a nominal return at that, the Edmonton Oilers are nearly out of quality options if they want to augment the sport’s most important position.

The division-rival Anaheim Ducks dealt goalie John Gibson to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, fetching just a 2026 fourth-round pick, a 2027 second and backup netminder Petr Mrazek (and the last year of his $4.25 million contract).

It’s the type of package the Oilers easily could have been able to match — and maybe should have.

GM Stan Bowman isn’t ready to make that call, though. Not yet. He’s continuing to evaluate his goaltending and said keeping Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard is “certainly a possibility.”

“We’re not at the point where we’re saying we’re definitely bringing in new goalies,” Bowman said.

Gibson might not have been the perfect fit to replace Skinner or Pickard as one of the Oilers’ goaltenders, given past seasons of subpar numbers — albeit on a rebuilding Ducks team — and his injury history. Gibson enjoyed a rebound campaign in 2024-25 with a .912 save percentage, though he was limited to just 29 games.But he’s 31 years old and has just two seasons remaining on his contract, so the Oilers could have pivoted if things went belly-up.

The Red Wings took on all of Gibson’s sizable $6.4 million cap hit. It would have hampered the Oilers’ offseason flexibility to do that. But getting out from the final year of Evander Kane’s $5.125 million cleared enough room for them to take on the full freight if needed. And that’s without even considering the savings they’d get by moving Skinner ($2.6 million) or Pickard ($1 million).

It must be noted that the Ducks, who are trying to make the playoffs this season, traded their former franchise netminder not only away from the Pacific Division but also outside of the Western Conference. They received a fellow Czech to work alongside starter Lukas Dostal as well. Both GMs, Pat Verbeek and Steve Yzerman, told the NHL Network they discussed a Gibson trade before the trade deadline in March.

The Oilers might have had to blow the Ducks out of the water with an offer to convince them to send Gibson and his full cap hit to Edmonton. They weren’t prepared to do that. But you can make the argument they should have, because with Gibson out of the picture, plus pending RFA Joel Hofer re-signing with the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, how should the Oilers address their goaltending now?

Bowman sure didn’t sound like someone who feels too antsy about that.

“I don’t think we’re going to come to one decision tomorrow or the next day,” he said. “It’s really taking in the information, and eventually we’re going to settle on the thing that we think is going to make the most sense.”

The pickings were slim to begin with, and they’re even slimmer now. Gibson was the most obvious potential goaltending upgrade available, as someone who’d been on the market for ages. There isn’t a clear-cut option for the Oilers with Gibson dealt.

The guy with the highest upside by far is Thatcher Demko, the 2024 Vezina Trophy runner-up, who has just one year left on his $5 million AAV contract. But the Vancouver Canucks have to be willing to trade Demko, and they have to be willing to trade him within the division. And that’s before mentioning the massive risk of acquiring someone who was limited to just 23 games last season because of extensive knee problems.

After Demko, the list of candidates consists of those who’ve underachieved on albatross contracts, backups with potential and free-agent-to-be Jake Allen. Gambles every place you look.

Hope all you want about the Oilers acquiring a franchise goalie on a retooling team like Ilya Sorokin or Ilya Shesterkin, but they’re in the nascent stages of their long-term contracts and have full no-movement clauses. Unless the Oilers can entice the Buffalo Sabres to part with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the 26-year-old who’s signed for four more seasons with a $4.75 million AAV, they might be better off standing pat.

Wouldn’t that be something? The longer Bowman and his staff keep debating the issue, the more likely the decision will be made for them.

A benefit to holding onto Skinner and Pickard is that the Oilers would have more financial resources to add to the forward ranks, namely middle-six wingers. However, it’s apparent retaining the tandem of Skinner and Pickard would be a tough sell in this city, especially since they were rotating through the crease to close out the Stanley Cup Final.It’s never a good thing when there’s great debate over which goalie should start Game 6 of a championship series. Neither netminder had a save percentage over .900 in either the regular season or playoffs this season. That’s in front of a good defensive team.

(Bowman reiterated that he likes his defence corps, wants to re-sign pending RFA Evan Bouchard and plans to have conversations this summer with Mattias Ekholm, Brett Kulak and Jake Walman — who are all entering the last season of their contracts — about extensions.)

At least the Oilers could run back the two goaltenders who helped them reach the final two years in a row, while watching over pending free agents like Demko, Jacob Markstrom and Filip Gustavsson next season for a potential trade.

The more conventional approach is firming up the goalie situation now — or at least making a call on it.

“When we find that sweet spot that we think makes sense, the price is right, the player’s the right player, then we’ll move,” Bowman said.

The clock is ticking.

Gibson is already off the table. Keep waiting and whatever’s left will be, too.

(Photo of Stuart Skinner: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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