Last night Mikko Koskinen played his first solid game, posting a .931 SV% stopping 27 of 29 shots. The first goal was a bit of a flub on Koskinen's part but overall it was the exact kind of game he needed to build confidence.
Earlier today the Oilers put Al Montoya on waivers with the purpose to send him down to play for the Condors. Koskinen will start the season as the backup and should he falter the team could send Mikko down to the AHL while calling up Montoya. All in all not a bad way to hedge bets.
Or at least that is what we thought until Peter Chiarelli spoke today.
Chiarelli joined Jason Gregor on TSN1260 to discuss a number of different talking points on training camp and thoughts going into the regular season. During this talk Chiarelli dropped this gem of a quote:
Koskinen has a no move clause. "In discussions with his agent we had agreed if he needed to sharpen his game he would be open to it. He wants to find success." Chiarelli #Oilers
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) September 28, 2018
Are you (insert expletive) kidding me?
Mikko Koskinen played 4 NHL games 8 years ago, posting a .873 SV%. On average he allowed 4.33 goals per game. When he couldn't cut it there he went over to the KHL where he enjoyed a strong career.
The KHL and NHL are both incredibly skilled leagues but are vastly different from one another. With the large open ice in Europe, less goals are scored from creating traffic in front and instead created from the rush. Over his first couple pre-season performances it was evident that Koskinen was having a difficult time getting back into position quickly, having not been used to the sheer volume of shot opportunities that occur in the NHL.
I'm not rooting against Koskinen. For the sake of the team I hope he continues to improve and gives the team a second solid option between the pipes. I'm not hear to fire insults at him.
Once again I am back beating the horse that is essentially nothing but pulp now on Chiarelli's terrible track record with his deals.
Right now the Oilers have huge cap issues. 10 million dollars are tied up in NMC's for an aging Milan Lucic and 3rd pairing defender Kris Russell.
Drake Caggiula just signed a 2 year 3 million dollar deal after being gifted time in the top 9; he might not even make it on the 4th line out of training camp.
Jerabek signed for a 1 million dollar deal and on a team starving for depth will probably lose out to PTO Jason Garrison.
Now we add Mikko Koskinen to this list. A 2.5 million dollar unproven goaltender who on top of being a high risk option...also has a NMC preventing the team from utilizing other options.
The other maddening part of this is it wasn't like there were no other options for signing a backup goaltender. Look at some of these options in comparison to Koskinen's 2.5 million dollar deal.
Carter Hutton has signed on a three year deal for 2.75 per Chad Johnson signed one year, 1.75 Jaroslav Halak signed two years 2.75 Robin Lehner signed one year, 1.5 Petr Mrazek signed one year 1.5
If the Oilers were looking for a goalie to backup Cam Talbot and push him from time to time any one of these would have been a suitable option. Instead the Oilers GM decides to jump out of a plane without a parachute and expect to be fine.
Scrolling through my Twitter feed I saw this tweet which perfectly sums up Chiarelli's pattern of moves.
There is a 1000% chance that one time playing poker Chia got a pair of tens in his first hand and immediately went all-in.
— Jeanshorts (@JSBMjeanshorts) September 28, 2018
- Bet that Larsson can be a top pairing player and Lucic can replace Hall's production - Miss - Trade Eberle for Strome and hope someone steps up in 17/18 - Miss
Trade after trade, Chiarelli makes ludicrous bets that to even the average hockey person sound pretty sketchy. This mindset cost the Oilers fanbase the opportunity to watch playoff hockey last season and depending how the dice fall it might cost them again this year. Maybe this will all work out for the best but if history decides to do that whole repeating thing it does from time to time I think we all know how this is going to turn out.