As the 2025-26 National Hockey League season is fast approaching, one of the players most talked about by hockey fans is Stuart Skinner. The native of Edmonton, Alberta is being blamed by many for his subpar goaltending in his last three appearances while with the Edmonton Oilers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals.
You could argue it was a topsy turvy postseason for Skinner. He got off to a lousy start in the postseason against the Los Angeles Kings, was unbelievable in two postseason series against the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars, and then returned to his early playoff struggles when the games mattered most for the Oilers against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
With how strong the Oilers defense have been as of late, it is the goaltending position that has the greatest scrutiny. Having a save percentage under .900 is not very efficient in today’s NHL, especially when the goaltender is on a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.
To Skinner’s credit, he does deserve some praise for his production the last two playoff seasons. In that time, he was clearly better than Dallas Stars All-Star goaltender Jake Oettinger of Lakeville, Minnesota in not just one postseason series in 2024, but a second postseason series too in 2025. Both of those series were Western Conference Finals. Skinner also outplayed Kings goaltender (and former All-Star) Cam Talbot of Caledonia, Ontario in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Vegas Golden Knights goaltender and former Stanley Cup champion Adin Hill of Comox, British Columbia in the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, it is Hill and not Skinner, who received an invite to Team Canada for the Olympic Orientation Camp in Calgary at the end of August.
There are two teams at this time that Skinner could be traded to in the coming months. One team is the Boston Bruins. If Skinner, is traded to Boston, do not expect him to be in Boston long, as the Bruins already Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo. The reason why the Oilers would have interest in making a trade with Boston is because prospect Michael DiPietro of Windsor, Ontario, who was tremendous with the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League last season (goals against average of 2.05 and save percentage of .927).
The Oilers may also be interested in Devon Levi of the Buffalo Sabres. Like DiPietro, Levi had strong AHL statistics in 2024-25 (goals against average of 2.20 and save percentage of .919), with the Rochester Americans, but the native of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec only had a goals against average of 4.12 and save percentage of .872 in nine games last season in Buffalo.
