Elliotte Friedman Blasts Oilers' Goaltending Plan Amid Stuart Skinner Uncertainty

For the past two seasons, the Edmonton Oilers have fallen just short in the Stanley Cup Finals, and while there's been many reasons for their failures at the hands of the Florida Panthers, many have identified their goaltending as an area that needs to be fixed.

After more Stuart Skinner inconsistencies, many Oilers fans have pushed for a big change in net this summer, while others have noted that potentially changing their backup may be a solid enough plan to turn things around.

That's something that NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman has mentioned on previous podcasts, but today, he changed his tune, revealing that he believes replacing Calvin Pickard would not be a good idea.

The reason behind Friedman's change of tune is the change that the Oilers recently made, moving on from long-time goaltending coach Dustin Schwartz, with the belief that a change behind the bench could get the best out of not only Pickard, but Stuart Skinner as well.

On the surface, a change one way or another was needed, and the Oilers chose to make that change behind the bench, because looking around the NHL, there's not much of an upgrade to be had in net.

Ultimately, the Oilers still believe that the duo of Skinner and Pickard can take them all the way, and with very few assets to work with, there's no avenue for them to land an obvious upgrade in net, so for now, it appears as though no big time trade will be going down.