Oilers starting Calvin Pickard in Game 4: Why Stuart Skinner is on the bench

EDMONTON — Amid struggles from No. 1 goaltender Stuart Skinner, the Edmonton Oilers are turning to backup Calvin Pickard. The journeyman netminder will make his first NHL playoff start against the Vancouver Canucks in a pivotal Game 4 on Tuesday.

“It’s not an ideal situation. He hasn’t been playing for a long time,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “But he’s gone long stretches without playing (in the regular season). The team has a lot of confidence in Calvin when he has played.

“He’s going to be our guy.”

Skinner has a .877 save percentage in the playoffs. He was pulled after the second period of Game 3 after allowing four goals on 15 shots. He’s surrendered 12 goals on 58 shots through just over eight periods in the series — an awful .793 save percentage.

Pickard made his playoff debut in relief of Skinner in Game 3 and stopped all three shots he faced. The net is his now.

“All you can ask for is an opportunity in the Stanley Cup playoffs,” Pickard said. “I felt like I had a good season. The preparation’s done. I’m excited to get out there.”

For Pickard to be in this position would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the season. He was the third goaltender on the organization’s depth chart and spent the entire 2022-23 campaign with AHL Bakersfield.

But the Oilers were a disaster for the first few weeks of the season and high-priced goalie Jack Campbell was waived on Nov. 7 — a day after a lopsided loss in Vancouver. He was demoted the next day and Pickard was recalled.

The move was expected to be temporary, meant to allow Skinner to grasp the starting role and Campbell to re-establish his game.

However, the combination of Pickard’s competent work between the pipes and his $762,500 cap hit meant he would likely been plucked off waivers were he ever exposed to be returned to the minors to make room for Campbell.

Pickard never left Edmonton and sported a .909 save percentage in 23 appearances, winning 12 of his 20 starts.

“I’m expecting what I’ve seen from Calvin all season,” Knoblauch said. “He’s played very well for us and piled up a lot of victories.”

Tuesday is clearly Pickard’s biggest start of the season.

“Our whole group has a ton of faith in him,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “The work and compete he brings (makes him) one of the favourites in here of people.”

Pickard making his first playoff start at 32 years old is the latest twist in his roller-coaster of a pro hockey career.

Pickard was the starting goalie for an atrocious Colorado Avalanche team that finished with 48 points in 2016-17. He still managed a .904 save percentage in 48 games.

He was Canada’s starter at the World Championship that year and battled future Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist in the final. He allowed just one goal on 41 shots before Sweden won the gold medal in a shootout.

The Vegas Golden Knights took him in the expansion draft. He was 25 and seemingly on the rise with a great opportunity in front of him. That’s when things took an unexpected turn. The Golden Knights waived him before the start of their inaugural season.

Toronto ultimately traded for him, but Pickard wound up on its AHL team and was the backup in the playoffs for the Marlies’ Calder Cup championship run.

From there, the list of teams he’s played for is a long one: the Philadelphia Flyers, Arizona Coyotes, Tucson Roadrunners, Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit Red Wings, Vienna Capitals (in the fall of 2020 due to COVID-19), then back to Grand Rapids and Detroit again before his first season in Bakersfield, for the Oilers’ top affiliate, the Condors, in 2022-23.

“It’s just believing in myself,” Pickard said. “I know I can play at this level. This year I proved it to myself and everybody around me. It’s a really good opportunity for me tonight. I feel like I’m ready.”

“He’s been so steady for us every time he’s been in the net,” winger Zach Hyman said. “For him to be back in the NHL and in a position where you’re starting a playoff game, that’s pretty incredible and a credit to who he is and how hard he’s worked.”

Pickard in for Skinner isn’t the only lineup move the Oilers are making ahead of Game 4. Knoblauch said Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will center their own lines to start the game after getting heavy usage playing together in the previous two contests.

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The lineup might see 11 forwards and seven defencemen, which would be a first under Knoblauch this postseason. Should that happen, Philip Broberg would come into the lineup on defense and the Oilers’ two superstars will still be relied on heavily.

“It’s a lot easier to double shift 97 and 29 and have them back on the ice right away with another line,” Knoblauch said.

Knoblauch confirmed veteran Adam Henrique will miss his third game of the series with a suspected lower-body injury. Henrique’s only appearance came in Game 2 when he played 11:38 and was minus-1.

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(Photo of Calvin Pickard: Sergei Belski / USA Today)