Calvin Pickard’s agent speaks out against Oilers move to demote veteran goalie
Calvin Pickard’s agent is speaking out in no uncertain terms against Stan Bowman’s decision to waive the veteran goaltender.
Thankfully for the Oilers, Pickard was able to clear waivers and remain within the organization. There’s a good chance he’ll be recalled back to the NHL when rosters expand in the playoffs, but in the meantime, his playing future looks entirely uncertain.
Calvin Pickard’s agent speaks out against waivers decision
Pickard’s agent Rich Winter is doing his job by advocation for his client, but it’s also a fact that he wouldn’t express these thoughts without consultation of Pickard himself. I’m that context, his comments are very revealing.
Winter said his main points of contention against the waivers decision where that Pickard is a more proven playoff goalie than the other two, he’s beloved in the locker room, and Coach Knoblauch just doesn’t know what to do. In fact, he claimed Pickard is the best goalie on the Oilers, and Ingram should’ve been sent down instead.
In my conversations with Stan, he’s not sure that Calvin’s not number 1. He just got into a situation right now where the coach has got flavours - there’s not a lot of difference between them. The statistics are very similar.
It didn’t make sense to me when you could have sent Ingram down - Every time Calvin’s in the net, everybody says the guys play better because they love him. That shouldn’t be the case, but it appears to be the case. He’s a glue figure in the dressing room.
I talked to Stan, he’s 9-2 in the playoffs. Do we forget? These guys haven’t had much playoff success. Ingram hasn’t hardly played in the playoffs.
When Calvin went on waivers, we decided do we talk to another team, do we rush it? We don’t, because ultimately, he has a great relationship with the people here. He’s had success here. Everybody thinks there’s not enough differentiation between the three of them to suggest any other place is a good place to go.
- Rich Winter
It didn’t make sense to me when you could have sent Ingram down - Every time Calvin’s in the net, everybody says the guys play better because they love him. That shouldn’t be the case, but it appears to be the case. He’s a glue figure in the dressing room.
I talked to Stan, he’s 9-2 in the playoffs. Do we forget? These guys haven’t had much playoff success. Ingram hasn’t hardly played in the playoffs.
When Calvin went on waivers, we decided do we talk to another team, do we rush it? We don’t, because ultimately, he has a great relationship with the people here. He’s had success here. Everybody thinks there’s not enough differentiation between the three of them to suggest any other place is a good place to go.
- Rich Winter
Really, Winter makes a few absurd suggestions through this rant. Let’s dive into them.
If Stan Bowman truly believed that Pickard may be better than Tristan Jarry, why would he make the trade to acquire him? That’s a nonsensical conclusion as Jarry had a .909 save percentage at the time of the trade, and Pickard is currently at an .871.
Instead Winter suggests that Ingram should be the goaltender to leave the Oilers - a wild claim when Ingram has arguably been their most consistent goalie this year with an .897 through 13 games.
The claims that Pickard is beloved in the locker room and has had playoff success are undeniably true, but they’re not great reasons to have kept the Skinner/Pickard tandem intact. Pickard was struggling massively earlier this season, and rolling into the playoffs with him in mind as their primary starter would be malpractice by the GM.
Finally, it’s just a reality that every NHL team had a chance to claim Pickard for free on waivers, and every team declined. He doesn’t come at a higher cost with a $1M salary, but every team chose to keep their tandem instead of adding Pickard. That speaks volumes as to how his skill is viewed around the league.
Of course Pickard staying within the Oilers organization is the ideal outcome as he’ll serve as a quality third goalie for injury insurance. But the reality is that he has the weakest stats of all Oilers goalies this year, and was the right decision to cut.
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