It seems that the eternal Achilles heel for the Edmonton Oilers has been their goaltending situation. Yes, the club has made an effort to address the situation this offseason. But that effort could ultimately lead to the club running with an experiment.
The experiment pertains to the team carrying three goalies for the bulk of the season. Instead of going with a more traditional starter-backup tandem or a 1A-1B setup, the Oilers will be rolling with three netminders.
That's a bit off the cuff, as not all teams do so. The main issue with carrying three goalies is the cap implications. An additional netminder could take away from a skater such as a defenseman or forward.
Unfortunately, the Oilers were unable to land a solid starting goalie like Sergei Bobrovsky. So, the next best thing was to pluck Stanley Cup-winning netminder Frederik Andersen away from the Carolina Hurricanes and trade for unproven prospect Devon Levi.
Andersen and Levi will form a three-pronged attack with Tristan Jarry to hopefully solve the organization's needs between the pipes.
In theory, it sounds all well and fine. But as Kurt Leavins noted in the Edmonton Journal, Andersen will be under "severe load management." In other words, Andersen may find himself either playing or resting.
And if that's the case, Jarry and Levi will be the ones to keep the Oilers afloat while Andersen recovers in between starts.
It's actually quite rare that teams carry three goalies in the salary cap era. As outlined above, the cap limitations make it difficult for teams to have more than two netminders at any one time.
When teams see themselves forced to carry more than two goalies, it's usually out of necessity rather than anything else.
That's why there's no real precedent for a team carrying three netminders the entire season. But it might just become a new thing amid the 84-game schedule this season. Sure, two extra games won't make goalies suddenly die.
But there's travel and compressed schedules to consider. As Leavins noted, the Oilers will play 46 games between September 19 and December 30. That's a bit of a tight turnaround, especially for an aging goalie like Andersen.
By Leavins' reckoning, Andersen could play as many as 28 of those first 46 games. Considering that Andersen played 35 games all of last season, the Oilers may need to rely on Jarry and Levi to carry the load for the bulk of the second half of the season.
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The other thing to keep in mind is the grueling travel schedule the Oilers will face. Edmonton has consistently been among the teams with the most travel over the last couple of seasons. As such, that coming and going might represent a significant amount of wear and tear on Andersen.
When he's good, he's brilliant. But because he's basically held together with duct tape, the Oilers may want to save Andersen the trouble of lengthy road trips. The Oilers will face two six-game road trips this season.
The first will be an East Coast swing in mid-November. The second will happen in late December and early January, as Rogers Place will be one of the sites for next year's World Juniors.
As such, the Oilers will likely roll with Jarry and Levi for those two trips, giving Andersen a bit of an extended break during those trips.
So, let's see if this experiment works out. Given the severe load management, it might just become a path forward in the NHL.
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