Seeing how I only have two players to talk about today, I hopefully won't be as long winded as my last two preview posts. But then again, I do tend to get carried away when it comes to my Oiler's.
There aren't any sort of battles on the goalie side of things heading into trading camp. The Oiler's are really only looking at two players for the two roster spots, last years starter Cam Talbot and newly acquired Mikko Koskinen. Cam Talbot will start the year in net for the Oiler's and Koskinen will be the back up.
Cam Talbot has been the Oiler's starting goalie for the past three seasons. Talbot posted strong numbers in his first two seasons and had a career year two seasons ago. Last season, not so much. Talbot's save percentage dropped from 0.919 to 0.908 and his goals against average surged from 2.39 up to 3.02. The Oiler's had many games this past season that Talbot was the reason the team lost. Despite that he is still the best goalie on the roster and there is no reason to think he can't bounce back to posting similar numbers to the rest of his career.
On May 1st the Oiler's signed KHL goalie Mikko Koskinen. Finland is known for producing great goaltenders and taking a gamble on an established KHL goalie from Finland seems to be a good bet for the Oiler's. The signing did raise a few eyebrows though as the Oiler's will be forking over $2.5 million next season to a goalie with only 4 games of NHL experience. I'm all for the Oiler's taking a gamble on Koskinen, just maybe not at a $2.5 million price tag.
Koskinen is slated to be the backup but the expectation is that he will be able to push Talbot a bit for playing time. If Talbot is unable to return to previous form, we may see Koskinen get a chance to prove he's capable of being an NHL goalie. At minimum I hope Oiler's fans don't have to cringe every time they hear that Talbot won't be starting on any given night. A competent backup might be enough to remove some pressure from Talbot and allow him to get his confidence back.
This season will have a a lot of Oiler's fans holding their breath until they see what we have in goal for the season. Will we have the Cam Talbot who was an iron man and rock solid all season from two years ago? The Cam Talbot who struggled immensely from last season? Or will Mikko Koskinen swoop in and steal the crease from Talbot and lead the Oiler's to the playoffs in his first full NHL season? I'm a bit nervous waiting to find out the answers to these questions.
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