Campbell benched for Battle of Alberta; Oilers going with rookie goaltender with 17 games of NHL experience instead
It's been a less than ideal start for former Leaf Jack Campbell in Edmonton and I think that's putting it mildly. Coming into Saturday's game against the Calgary Flames in the always heated Battle of Alberta, Campbell is sporting a 4-2-0 record. Not bad, right? Well, his 3.89 GAA and .888 SV% tell a better story - which is why Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft elected to sit Campbell tonight in favour of 23-year-old Stuart Skinner, who has just 17 games of NHL experience, 3 of which came this season.
This has to be a tough blow for Campbell, sitting out a big game against a division rival in favour of a goaltender who is largely an unproven commodity. From Woodcroft's standpoint though, he's simply looking at the numbers and making what he determined was the best decision. When asked about the decision to start Skinner following the morning skate, Woodcroft had this to say:
-Woodcroft on sitting Campbell in favour of Skinner
That has to hurt to hear if you're Campbell. Hopefully, Soupy can use that as motivation to get back to work in practice and try to clean up the details of his game and wait for his next opportunity to get back in there. As for tonight, Woodcroft probably had flashbacks to Campbell's last outing against the Flames on October 15th, when Soup surrendered 4 goals on 11 shots. Campbell was pulled in favour of Skinner that night and Skinner went on to make 31 saves on the 31 shots he faced.
Skinner has a 1.44 GAA and a ridonkulous .957 SV% coming into tonight's game against the Flames, so it's not as though the decision was a difficult one for Woodcroft on paper. If he does end up winning tonight and going on a run, it's going to be a tough pill to swallow for Campbell and for GM Ken Holland, who just shelled out $25M for Campbell over the next 5 seasons.
If they're getting 5 years of what Campbell is this season, he's unlikely to see the end of that contract in Edmonton and could end up as a buyout or trade candidate. It's worth noting that Campbell does have some trade protection in his contract, allowing him to submit a 10-team no-trade list.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 29 | 253 ANSWERS Campbell benched for Battle of Alberta; Oilers going with rookie goaltender with 17 games of NHL experience instead Is Campbell headed towards an eventual buyout? | ||
| Yes | 133 | 52.6 % |
| No | 27 | 10.7 % |
| It's too early to say | 93 | 36.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
