On Friday, the Edmonton Oilers claimed tree-like goaltender Niko Hovinen off of waivers. Hovinen was part of the Philadelphia Flyers, spending most of this year playing in the ECHL. The 6' 7", 200lbs 24 year old was previously playing for the Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish League.
What does this mean? A few things:
1. Nikolai Khabibulin's injury situation is worse than we hoped.
2. Yann Danis will be Devan Dubnyk's backup for the next while, which is fine. He looked good enough for the role when he filled in against San Jose the other day.
3. The Oilers needed to pick up a goalie for organizational depth reasons. My guess is he'll be sent to play for the Oilers farm team in OKC, and Tyler Bunz will return to the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL.
So perhaps the main news story here is, Khabibulin's injury is more serious than we thought. Let's hope he heals up soon, as it will be tough for the Oilers to go far without having two decent guys in goal.