NHL Teams Taking Advantage of Major Weakness with Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner

PUBLICATION

Liam McCormick
November 13, 2024 (4:24 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

Stuart Skinner has been struggling to find consistency early this season, and even after a win last night against the Islanders, the opponent found a way to exploit a major weakness of the Oilers goalie.

Recently, goalie analyst Steve Valiquette revealed that Stuart Skinner ranks as the worst goalie in the NHL off of rush chances, because his side to side movement is so weak.

The first Islanders goal of last night's game was a perfect example of that weakness costing the Oilers. Skinner's side to side movement in the crease was visibly slow, and left him no chance to make the save. Most NHL goalies are able to at least get over and be competitive to make saves off the rush.

And that's the key issue that drives concern from Steve Valiquette. The last teams to appear in the Cup Final have had a trend of having strong rush offence. If that's Skinner's biggest weakness and it's public knowledge, teams will be targeting Skinner for easy goals off the rush.

For the most part in his career, Skinner has been able to survive this weakness and post league average results - which should be good enough for the Oilers.

However, is other teams become aware of Skinner's weakness and his performance dips to below league average, there will be cause for major concern. So far this year, Skinner's save percentage is a brutal .881.

Hopefully Skinner can find a way to remedy this weakness in his game, otherwise it will be difficult for him to retain his role as a starting goalie. The Oilers may want to shop the market for a tandem goalie to play alongside Stuart Skinner.